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The Gift of Agnes Scott “Main” Hall

As an architectural historian and preservationist, I most often advocate for old buildings by saying they are history we can walk around in. For me, few places embody that statement more than Agnes Scott “Main” Hall. Built in 1891, Main is the oldest building on campus and the historic heart of our school. In its earliest years, Main was a one-stop shop for Agnes Scott students and staff. It housed classrooms, art and music studios, the chapel, the president’s office, student dorms, the dining hall and even a gymnasium! Since then, Agnes Scott has grown and changed in ways that our founders could never have imagined, and as all great buildings do, Main has adapted to that growth and change while still serving the students and the school. There is no longer a gym in the basement or pianos on the fourth floor, but Main remains a hub of school activity.

I was lucky enough to spend my sophomore year on the second floor of Main in a giant, un-air-conditioned room that overlooked the quad. It remains, without a doubt, my favorite room of all time. Living in a dorm that had housed 111 years’ worth of Agnes Scott students before me and knowing it would house countless more after me sparked my interest in architecture and preservation and led me to my current career.

Today, Main is first and foremost a residence hall, but it also houses the Office of the President, the Office of the Dean of Students and, of course, our iconic bell tower. The beauty of Main Hall’s central location and mixed use is that every alumna, even those who did not live in the building, likely has fond memories of time spent there. Whether it was visiting friends, peeking in a tower room, surviving the elevator or finally being able to ring the bell senior year, Main Hall is the backdrop of generations of Agnes Scott stories. I have heard firsthand tales of adventures in Main that took place in 1934 and others that happened just last year. I have seen the pure excitement of two Scotties, many class years apart, as they realized their names are side by side on the wall of the bell tower. Like the onyx rings we so proudly wear, Main is a thread that ties us all together.

Historic preservationists talk a lot about the magic of old places—the patina of age that new construction can never replicate. Agnes Scott “Main” Hall has that magic in droves. It is a beautiful building inside and out, but it is starting to show its age. The time has come to restore Main Hall. The Campaign for Main’s goal is $31 million by December 2020, and I believe that we can do it. One of the tenets of historic preservation is the belief that old buildings are gifts from the past. People we never met built Agnes Scott Hall, and we have all benefited from their generosity. The Campaign for Main is our turn to pay that generosity forward and to give the gift of Main Hall to generations of future Scotties.

— Lindsey Walsworth ’05

Lindsey Walsworth ’05 is an architectural historian. After graduating from Agnes Scott College with a degree in art history, she spent two years as the alumnae relations coordinator in the college’s Office of Alumnae Relations and served as the staff liaison to the Environment and Facilities Committee of the Board of Trustees during the planning phase of the Campaign for Main. Walsworth has a master’s degree in historic preservation and environmental ethics from the University of Georgia. Her work in the field has taken her from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Honolulu, Hawaii, to Atlanta, Georgia, where she currently works for HNTB Corporation, an infrastructure solutions firm.