Carnegie Hall of Moores Hill College, also known as Moores Hill High School, is a historic educational building located at Moores Hill,

Dearborn County, Indiana Dearborn County is one of 92 counties of the U.S. state of Indiana located on the Ohio border near the southeast corner of the state. It was formed in 1803 from a portion of Hamilton County, Ohio. In 2020, the population was 50,679. The county ...

. It was built in 1907, and is a -story, "T"-plan, brick building with

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

and

Jacobethan Revival The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

style design elements. It sits on a raised

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

faced basement. The building consists of a central portion flanked by projecting wings bisected by a central

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

with pyramidal roof. It features a steeply pitched gable roof, parapeted gables,

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

trim, and pointed arch openings. The building housed Moores Hill College until 1917, when it moved to Evansville to later become the

University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton College, in Grantham, England. UE offers more than 80 differ ...

. It was funded in part by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, who donated $18,750 to its construction. It later housed the local

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

until 1987. ''Note:'' This includes and Accompanying photographs. The original college was named Moores Hill Male and Female Collegiate Institute when it was established in 1854, and was founded by the Methodist Church. The college's governing board entered enthusiastically upon construction of the original building known as Moore Hall (in the grassy lot to the north of the later site of Carnegie Hall), then ran short of funds as so many similar early endeavors did. At the same time the town's Masonic lodge, Allen Lodge No. 165 was just being established. Its members accepted an offer by the college trustees to provide quarters for any fraternal organization that would contribute to the building fund. The building was completed in part through the financial assistance of the Masons. A room on the third floor was set aside for the Lodge's use. The Brethren met in their new hall for the first time in January 1856 and continuously thereafter for the next 59 years. The original Moore Hall was destroyed by fire in 1915. A Masonic historical marker was placed on the site in 1974. Carnegie Hall was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1994.

References

University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Collegiate Gothic architecture in Indiana School buildings completed in 1907 Buildings and structures in Dearborn County, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Dearborn County, Indiana 1907 establishments in Indiana {{DearbornCountyIN-NRHP-stub