Neale Hall

1920 - Present

Virginia Alice Cottey had long wished to build a proper gymnasium for Cottey. Prior to Neale Hall, the gym was housed in the basement of Main Hall, a space too cramped and dark for athletics, Alice thought. By the 1920s finances were in place to build a new fitness facility. But as usual, the college needed far more than a physical education building, so Neale Hall became a hybrid of athletic, recreation, and academic facilities.

A Pool, Gym, Classrooms ― and Suites?

Neale Hall was begun in 1920, but not finished till 1926.⁴ It was named after its principal donor, Mary Frances Neale, who gave $10,000 to the college in 1920.⁵ In addition to this sum, Cottey took out a $15,000 loan from the Farm and Home Loan Association.

The ground floor housed the commercial department on the north side and a swimming pool, dressing booths, and showers on the south side.⁴ The first floor contained a gymnasium on the west side, with home economics units, a foods lab, dining room, and clothing lab on the east side. On the mezzanine was a room for day students and the dean of faculty office.

Neale Hall's very small swimming pool was finished by January of 1921, and immediately became the most popular place on campus.⁵ Helen Troesch writes, "Everyone wanted to use the pool and the registration for swimming classes was so large that it had to be restricted to older students."⁵ The building was formally opened on January 28th, 1922 with a Saturday night masquerade party.¹⁰ Students wore costumes representing their states, including a couple of girls who dressed up as a Missouri mule.⁵

It was always planned for Neale Hall to have suites on its top floor, similar to Rosemary Hall. Cottey catalogues mentioned the future dorms from 1920 to 1925, arranged after "the famous Cottey Plan."⁴ However, by 1925, Cottey was in dire need of modern classrooms, and the second story dorms were scrapped.⁵ The top floor instead housed chemistry and biology labs, a lecture room, and four recitation rooms.

Fire & Remodel as an Athletics Facility

On August 26th, 1937, the top floor of Neale was destroyed by fire, likely due to faulty wiring.¹ Temporary classrooms were set up in Main, Rosemary, and Missouri halls. The Cottey Board of Trustees recommended that Neale be rebuilt solely as a physical education building, and that Main Hall be remodeled for instruction and administration. (They also set the wheels in motion for a new dormitory to be built, which would become P.E.O. Hall.)

Cottey junior Marjorie Herrmann (Cox) penned the following poem entitled "Neale Hall," which was printed in the 1938 yearbook:

Wierd [sic],
Sinister it stands,
Twisted girders,
Chaos, havoc,
Wretched by a conquering foe,
Fire.¹¹

Neale Hall was rebuilt without its second story by January of 1938. (The new flat roof quickly became a favorite sunbathing spot for Cottey students.⁷) The classrooms and labs on the first floor were demolished, doubling the size of the gymnasium to 5,000 square feet.¹³ The swimming pool and dressing rooms were repainted, and two new showers added. The former day-student room had become the Athletic Association lounge, and this too was remodeled. The furniture was repaired and the walls were painted "cork at the base and buff above."¹³ The room was also livened up "with a splash of color in the way of red curtains and red and black wall hangings."¹³ The Athletic Association held an open house in the new gym on January 22, 1938, where various sports were demonstrated and punch was served.

The building was open throughout the day for classes and recreation, and students were free to use the facilities at any time.¹³ The gym was marked and equipped for basketball, volleyball, badminton, deck tennis, shuffleboard, and ping pong. "Badminton was the most popular of all this year, and many were the birds that shed feathers," was remarked in the 1938 yearbook.¹¹ Swimming classes ranged from beginning to "advanced life saving,"¹¹ and free swim periods were available with a life guard on duty.¹³ According to the P.E.O. Record, going to Neale Hall was "proving to be a popular form of recreation during the week-end."¹³

School Dances

As the most spacious indoor facility, the gym was also used for most of Cottey's parties. Pajama parties, "Hard Times" parties, Halloween masquerades, Christmas formals, and Mardi Gras dances were all held here. Whether dancing with Camp Clark soldiers or being abducted into the basement for a ritual beheading, good times were had by all (or most).

Proposed Addition

By the 1960s, Neale Hall's athletic facilities were insufficient and outdated. Cottey's Board of Trustees realized the need for a larger pool and more gym space, and proposed an addition to the backside of Neale in their 1965 building plan.¹⁴ This would have been a thrifty way for the college to modernize their physical education amenities, but the building was already 45 years old. Considering this, the Neale Hall annex was eventually abandoned in favor of erecting an entirely new building, which would become Hinkhouse Center.

Renovation as an Arts Center

In 1972, after Hinkhouse was built, Neale Hall was no longer needed as an athletics facility, and was repurposed for the arts. A massive remodeling campaign was planned, but not everything proposed was accomplished. The swimming pool was to be removed, but it lingers in the basement, drained and closed off. The stone parapet on the roof of the building was removed and supposed to be replaced with a new overhanging roof.¹⁰ This never materialized.

They did, however, convert the old gym into "studios for graphic arts, design, painting, a darkroom, an art gallery, lecture rooms and several storage areas."¹⁰ The basement was partially converted into space for "kilns, glazing, batiking, visual aids, seminar rooms, craft and welding classes and offices for the art faculty."¹⁰ 3D design and sculpture classes took place in the basement, while the drawing, painting, and design classes were held in the old gym. Through the '70s, professor Harry Chew was in charge of the Neale art gallery, which had new shows each month.¹³

The art department is still housed in Neale Hall today, despite the fact that in the '70s it was considered a "temporary" solution.¹⁰ The building was not remodeled well enough to handle the many necessities of art classes, though. There have been numerous complaints about lack of ventilation, the poor condition of the darkroom, and other substandard facilities.

The Future of Neale

In 2008, Cottey College's 20-Year Plan called for Neale Hall to be demolished to make way for a new 22,000 square-foot art facility.⁶ This new Fine Arts Instructional Building will create an "'arts alley' on the north side of campus, visually and programmatically linking the fine arts."⁶ However, Cottey announced in May of 2011 that the new Fine Arts Building will be built around Neale Hall, "although the building [Neale] will look significantly different when work is completed."²⁴ So Neale Hall is going to stick around after all.