The 100th Anniversary of the Burning of Old Main

The First Building

The Old Main, built in 1892, was the first and biggest building in the early days of Central Michigan Normal. It held multiple classrooms, administrative offices, the library, and multiple lounges for students. As the campus grew, it remained the hub of Central Michigan Normal’s operations.

 

 The Central Campus in 1925

 

 

In 1925, Central Michigan Normal was a small teacher’s college with a student body numbering just over 400. The campus, covered about ten acres and only consisted of five buildings: the Science Building (now known as Grawn Hall), the Gymnasium, the Training School, the residence hall, and Old Main. There were also athletic fields for football, baseball, track and field, and tennis. The map on the left shows the extent of campus in 1925.

 

 

 

The Old Main Fire 

Around midnight on December 7, 1925, a fire of unknown origin started in Central’s Old Main building. The 1926 Chippewa Yearbook recounts: “The first view of the campus gave the impression that every building was blazing, so sharply were the nearer structures lit up against a background of flames.” The fire lasted until 2:30 in the morning, and little remained of the building. Eyewitnesses recounted seeing the remnants of the 30,000-book library. The loss of Old Main united the faculty, students, and community members who worked quickly to rebuild the destruction at Central Michigan Normal.

Immediate Community Action

The Central Michigan Normal community did not focus on what they lost, instead they worked together to keep the school running. The Lansing State Journal of December 8, 1925 stated, “Although the main building on the campus at Central Michigan Normal was a mass of ruins following a fire that swept through it early Monday morning, the school routine had adjusted Monday afternoon and every class met with its instructor.” Just two days after the fire, the State Administration Board met to distribute emergency funds. Central Michigan Normal received $40,000 to aid in building temporary buildings to keep classes in session.

With the help of community members, the school built three temporary buildings, known as the Sheep Sheds because of their bare-bones construction. They started building them during the winter vacation and finished before the students returned for spring semester.

Building of the New Administration Building

With the burning of the Old Main, Central Michigan Normal—soon to be Central State Teachers College—needed a new main building. The State Administration Board met again, and gave the school $750,000 to build “the new administration building.” Construction started in October 1926. With the new building, some new additions were added to the campus like the central tower, the 1,600-seat auditorium, and a much larger library. The memory of Old Main was not forgotten—the contractor used over 2 million salvaged bricks from the rubble in the construction of the new building.

In April 1928, the first assembly took place in the new auditorium, with 1,400 students, faculty, staff, and community members. At the request of the Central community who wished to honor the president who led Central through the reconstruction after the Old Main fire, the Michigan State Board of Education changed the name to Warriner Hall in 1939.