The Otterbein Miscelleny October, 1975

As late as World War II the basement was unfinished, except for a portion of the southwest end which housed a janitor and his family until after 1920. When Dr. A. P. Rosselot arrived at Otterbein as a student in 1901, he spent the night in these quarters since no one else was around. When Mr. Frye became the busi­ ness manager after World War II, he used the south end as an office and asked Forest “Red” Moreland, who had just arrived to work for the college, to finish off the rest of the basement. Half of each day he devoted to smoothing the dirt floors. By the use of an eight-foot stick he determined when everything was level, and then an order was placed for a shipment of concrete. Almost a year passed before all the floors were finished. Today the basement is used for printing and storage.

Most of the graduates of the college do not know that Towers once contained two hand operated elevators used for hoisting coal to the upper floors for the coal stoves and for bringing down ashes. At the present time the openings to the elevators in the basement are blocked up. A member of the class of 1943 recalls a prank in which some students, for no particular reason, filled the shafts with classroom chairs. According to him, splinters from the chairs thrown down were still visible many years later.

Near the print shop on the west side of the basement in the corner is the mail room. Formerly it was occupied by the tele­ phone exchange.

Going outside the building and entering the west door of the basement, the visitor enters a hallway which leads to the Reading Development Center. At one time these quarters were occupied by the Otterbein Room. Adjacent is a vault used by the treasurer and registrar of the college. In the northwest corner of the base­ ment is the public relations office. Formerly it was occupied by the Learning Resource Center. Around the corner to the extreme north is a pleasant classroom. Towers 1, an area developed into a classroom at the time of the GI bulge.

In retrospect. Towers Hall has had a distinguished career, serving a great variety of purposes. Only in recent years has it borne the name of Towers. When administrative offices were moved into the Carnegie Library and that structure was renamed the Administrative Building, President J. Gordon Howard decided that the old main building, formerly known as the Administration Building, needed a new name. The first choice was “Old Main,” 80