“I was teaching summer school and one day I went down to the second floor and noticed they had just oiled the floors. I said ‘Boy, they just made this place a better fire trap.’ It burned that night. It was an interesting experience to go to your office the next day and have it not be there!” —Robert Slonneger, professor emeritus and former associate chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering
WVU Libraries
WVU Libraries
WVU Libraries
WVU Libraries
Mechanical Hall Mechanical Hall was completed in 1902 for $55,000. It was well-stocked with nearly $60,000 of the latest machinery and apparatus for the “mechanic arts [and] engineering in all its varied forms.” The new facility was the shining jewel of the College and was heavily advertised as a draw for new students. The modern structure was successful in attracting students and, as a result, enrollment increased, course offerings expanded, departments flourished, and the College grew tremendously over the next 30 years. The College was proud of its up-to-date facilities—sheet metal and pipe fitting shops, a photo lab and dark room, and a foundry and forge—as well as its cutting-edge equipment, including engines, generators, transformers, and mining apparatus. As it aged, however, voices within the College began warning the University administration of the shortcomings of Mechanical Hall. By the 1940s, enrollment was especially high and expected to double by 1960, thanks to initiatives such as the GI Bill, which ensured returning soldiers would be able to attend the University after World War II. Changes in the engineering field also meant that new departments, such as aeronautical engineering, were being considered. In short, the College had outgrown Mechanical Hall. Even more worrisome was a study completed in 1944 that determined the building was “very much a fire trap.”
Unfortunately, this description became reality when Mechanical Hall burned to the ground on June 13, 1956. If there was a silver lining, the fire came at a time when a proposal was nearly finalized for a new building on the Evansdale Campus. “It was an old, old building,” said Robert Slonneger, professor emeritus and former associate chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “I was teaching summer school and one day I went down to the second floor and noticed they had just oiled the floors. I said ‘Boy, they just made this place a better fire trap.’ It burned that night. It was an interesting experience to go to your office the next day and have it not be there!” Slonneger said that the fire department was hesitant to go into some of the places to fight the fire because they knew there were shops in there with all kinds of gasses and equipment. “The building itself was old brick, and it was all frame inside,” Slonneger said. “It burned to the ground . . . it burned up completely.”
1961
1957
The Engineering Sciences Building is completed on WVU’s Evansdale Campus. The Cold War is under way—engineering research during this era leads to advances in nuclear energy, aircraft, lasers, computers, and other major technologies, all of which impact engineering education at WVU.