Rice Memorial Hall

Date

1910-present

Location

108 West College Street

Architects/Collaborators

Arthur Bates Jennings (1848-1927), New York City (architect)
George Feick, Sandusky, OH (contractor)
1962 Renovation: The Austin Company (engineers & builders)

Style

Refined Richardsonian Romanesque

History

Constructed in the years 1909 and 1910, Rice Hall was named in commemoration of the life services of Professor Fenelon B. Rice and Mrs. Helen M. Rice. Professor Rice was for thirty-one years the Director of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and to the work of Professor and Mrs. Rice is due in large measure to the early development, the rapid growth, and the high artistic ideals of the Conservatory. Rice Memorial Hall was, until the mid-1960s, a four-story structure that originally contained six large lecture rooms, numerous studios, and over a hundred practice rooms. It was used exclusively for the work of the Conservatory as an extension of the adjacent Warner Hall built in 1884, both by the same architect. When the old Conservatory building, Warner Hall, was replaced by the current Conservatory complex by Minoru Yamaski in 1964, Rice Hall was incorporated into the new King Memorial Hall complex. Its original roof and top story were removed to better harmonize with the King Building's flat roof. Today Rice Hall complements King Hall's function and holds faculty and department offices for the Social Sciences and the Humanities.

Sources

Oberlin College Archives
        College General Records, Buildings and Dedications.
        Office of the Secretary Records.