Marston Hall

Marston Hall was made possible by a gift of $150,000 by Edgar L. Marston for a building for the teaching of modern languages. The remainder of the $214,000 cost came from gifts of other friends of the University. The building, designed by Welles Bosworth of New York City, architect of the J. P. Morgan Library, is of Indiana limestone and has on either side of its main entrance the original seal of the College and the third and permanent seal adopted in 1834. Webster Knight 1876 contributed $10,000 for furnishing the building. One of its most attractive features was the library and reading room occupying the east end of the first floor, to which were brought the books from the seminary rooms of the Germanic and Romance Departments in Sayles Hall. A room on the second floor was named the Williams-Conant Seminary of German Literature, commemorating the library instituted by Alonzo Williams in 1890, to which Hezekiah Conant was the chief donor. The building was dedicated on the same day as Hegeman Hall, October 13, 1926.