Knapton Hall

1911

Knapton Hall was designed by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson and built in 1911. It was the first classroom building to be constructed at Wheaton since the additions made to Mary Lyon Hall in 1878.

Knapton or, as it was then known, Science Hall, was constructed on the site of an apple orchard where students spent Sundays when they were not allowed to leave campus. The cornerstone-laying ceremony held for Science Hall was apparently the first such ceremony held at Wheaton.

When Science Hall opened, it contained classrooms, laboratories and a lecture room. The basement held botany and biology laboratories. When smoking was first allowed at Wheaton, in 1932, a temporary smoking room was furnished in Science Hall until a smoking room was established in Hebe Parlors. In 1936, $2300 worth of new equipment was added to the botany, zoology and chemistry departments. Two years later, a darkroom was fitted up for Dr. Shook.

The first floor served as a chapel until Cole Memorial Chapel was built in 1917, when it was divided into recitation rooms. The second floor held physics and chemistry laboratories and a lecture room with a sloping floor and a reflectoscope lantern. The third floor was used by the art department. In 1933, part of the basement was converted into a science library, where it stayed until 1941, when the science library was moved to the first floor.

A wing was added in 1941 to provide more modern laboratory space. It contained lecture rooms, offices, seminar rooms and labs. It was designed by Caleb Hornbostel and Richard M. Bennett, Associated Architects, the winners of the 1938 Fine Arts Center Competition.

This building remained the Science Hall until 1968, when the new Science Center was constructed. In 1971, the building was redesigned as a center for the social sciences and renamed Knapton Hall in honor of Dr. Ernest John Knapton, professor of history from 1931 to 1969.