Feb. 20—MITCHELL — A pile of rubble may be all that is left of a longtime building on Dakota Wesleyan University’s campus, but the decades worth of fond memories will forever remain in the hearts of the former students and professors who spent years in the building.

After spending 31 years teaching business courses in the century-old building known by many DWU alumni as Science Hall, seeing a piece of the campus’ history being torn down over the past few weeks has brought back many memories for Jerry Luckett.

Reflecting back on the countless hours she spent teaching inside the old brick building that stood along the west side of the college campus, a humorous memory was the first one that came to Luckett’s mind.

“When I taught in the basement, we had bats in the building. Even my football players would hide under their desks and say, ‘When you get the bats out of here, we will come back in,'” Luckett said. “There was a custodian who routinely knew how to get the bats out, and we would just resume class as usual.”

As a student in Science Hall in the late 1980s prior to being hired as a business professor, Luckett reflected back on a project that sought to determine if plants had feelings. Luckett said her professor used a lie detector test to determine whether the plants had feelings.

“We hooked the plants up to a lie detector. He had us step out of the room, and he came back in with a knife. The plants on that detector just went crazy. He stepped out of the room with a knife, and it leveled back out,” Luckett said. “I was in shock because we found that plants had feelings.”

The building changed names to Hughes Hall in the 1990s, but many former students and professors referred to it as Science Hall.

Built in 1911, Science Hall was one of DWU’s first campus buildings that housed a variety of classes over the years.

The building also housed the office of one of South Dakota’s most famous politicians and former U.S. Presidential candidate, George McGovern, whose office was located on the fourth floor of Science Hall during his time spent as a DWU professor.

Joel Allen, a religion and philosophy professor and director of the McGovern Center, shared a unique piece of the building’s history that stretches back several decades. While Science Hall primarily consisted of classrooms, Allen said an old theater inside the building served as a “fun venue” to catch a play.

“I loved the old theater in the building. It had an old Oxford style look. It was just a fun place,” Allen said. “I went to many plays there.”

Katie Buschbach, a DWU graduate and Mitchell native, described Science Hall as a “building with a lot of unique characteristics you don’t forget when you step inside.”

“I remember the creaky sounds the floor made and the hallways. I wish I could have a brick from the building. It’s sad it’s gone,” she said.

Despite the centuries worth of memories made in Science Hall, the building began to experience structural issues in recent years that resulted in costly maintenance work for the college to fund.

The building issues prompted the college to move all of its classes out of Science Hall in 2021. The Mitchell Area Snack Pack program was the last occupant the building housed.

According to Louie Schoenfelder, DWU’s physical plant director, the latest problems included plumbing and electrical issues, along with a roof that was causing drainage problems. Schoenfelder wrote in a letter attached to the 2022 demolition permit that a price quote to repair the building came in at $6.5 million. Schoenfelder noted the $6.5 million quote to repair the building was made in 2011 and indicated costs have likely increased drastically since then.

While Luckett, Allen and many former professors and DWU alumni are sad to see the historic campus building come down, they understand the decision to demolish the aging structure.

As Luckett put it, “Change is inevitable, and old buildings that come with huge costs to keep up have to go.”

The demolition of Science Hall was a joint decision made in 2022 by the college’s leaders who collectively determined that it was no longer financially feasible to maintain the building and nearby Prather Hall, which was torn down over a year ago.

Although DWU’s campus has lost a pair of historic buildings over the past few years, new state-of-the-art facilities have outpaced the number of structures torn down on the campus.

From the 30,000-square-foot School of Business and Innovation facility to new dormitories, the longtime private college has been investing toward the future in recent years.

What’s next for the land where Science Hall stood for over 100 years?

According to Julie Brookbank, associate director of communications and marketing at DWU, the land where Science Hall once occupied will be turned into campus green space.

“The taking down of the building was the last item to be completed on the campus master plan that was started in 2017. The campus is now starting a new master plan, so things could always change when that gets rolling,” Brookbank said of the future plans for the campus.