University Hall, formerly Deady Hall, is a historic building located in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, United States. It was built from 1873 to 1876 by W. H. Abrams to a design by architect William W. Piper. It was the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

's first building, and remained the university's only building for almost ten years after its construction. After the university gained other buildings, it was known simply as the "Old Building", but in 1893 it was renamed "Deady Hall" in honor of

Matthew Deady Matthew Paul Deady (May 12, 1824 – March 24, 1893) was a politician and jurist in the Oregon Territory and the state of Oregon of the United States. He served on the Oregon Supreme Court from 1853 to 1859, at which time he was appointed to the n ...

, Oregon's first federal judge. Ironically, Deady believed that state universities were of little use to anybody, and in 1857, during the

Oregon Constitutional Convention The Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857 drafted the Oregon Constitution in preparation for the Oregon Territory to become a U.S. state. Held from mid-August through September, 60 men met in Salem, Oregon, and created the foundation for Oregon ...

, Deady moved to strike the section authorizing a university from the Oregon State Constitution. His efforts were initially successful, although by the 1870s a state university had become inevitable, and the building that bears his name was constructed in spite of Deady's earlier objections. In another twist of fate, Deady was first president of the university's

Board of Regents In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual col ...

. University Hall is variously described as simplified

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

with

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

details or simply as Second Empire (though not as elaborate an example as

Villard Hall Villard Hall is a historic building located in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Completed in 1886, it is the second-oldest building on the University of Oregon campus after University Hall. The Second Empire-style building was listed on National Re ...

). This building was listed on

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 1972. It and nearby Villard Hall were together designated as one

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1977. and ' At the

in 1857, Matthew Deady had advocated for discrimination towards

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

, who were not allowed to settle in the new state.Flores, Trudy and Sarah Griffith
The Oregon History Project: U.S. District Judge Matthew Deady.
Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved on June 20, 2016.Leeson, Fred. (1998). ''Rose City Justice: A Legal History of Portland, Oregon''. Oregon Historical Society Press. pp. 13-15, 21-26, 47-48, 52. Because of these views, Deady Hall became a target of an effort to remove his name from the building. On June 10, 2020, UO President Michael Schill sent a letter to the Board of Trustees recommending renaming Deady Hall because of Deady's racist views. On June 24, 2020, the University of Oregon's Board of Trustees announced that the name "Deady" would be removed as the name of the hall until a date when a new name can be chosen. In the interim, the hall will be named "University Hall."

References

External links

* 1876 establishments in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Eugene, Oregon University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon University and college academic buildings in the United States University of Oregon buildings {{Oregon-NRHP-stub

See also

References

External links