Bennet Puryear Hall
Site: South side of Gumenick Quadrangle
Dedication: April 11, 1927
Architect: Charles M. Robinson Architects; Cram and Ferguson, consulting architects
Size: 22,719 square feet
Renovation: 1977, by Caudill, Rowlett and Scott
Puryear Hall is one of three in the University’s original “science group,” composed of the chemistry building (Puryear Hall), the physics building (Richmond Hall), and the biology building (Maryland Hall). The three buildings are connected by a cloister that emphasizes the Gothic style, which is not as pronounced in these buildings as it is in other campus structures.[1] In 1944, the Board voted to change the name of the building to honor Bennett Puryear, Richmond College’s first professor of chemistry. In his history of the University of Richmond, Reuben Alley notes that Puryear’s daughter, Mrs. Sarah Puryear Hill, left the University $50,000 as a bequest to endow a fellowship in chemistry.
Puryear was the first of the three science buildings to be erected. University literature from that time describes it as Tudor Gothic, with exterior walls of sand-finished brick in mingled shades and limestone trim. The building is three stories, including the basement level, but the architects designed it so that a fourth floor could be added later. The top floor was never added. University literature from the 1920s emphasizes that Puryear Hall is “of the most substantial fireproof character.” Fireproofing was considered an important element. The building that had previously been used for science laboratories, a frame building located near the falls of Westhampton Lake, burned down in October 1925. After that fire, the science departments moved for a few years to the Playhouse, another frame structure that was part of the original amusement park.
When it opened, Puryear Hall contained two physical chemistry labs, an electro-chemistry lab, spectroscopic lab, organic lab, analytical lab, research labs, classrooms, professors’ offices, and a lecture hall capable of seating 200 students. It also had a shop (presumably for building and assembling equipment), stock room, vault, combustion room, and dark room. The physics department was temporarily located in the basement of Puryear until its own building, Richmond Hall, opened in 1930. Maryland Hall, which housed the biology department, opened in 1933.When the Gottwald Science Center opened in 1977, the science departments moved there. Afterwards Puryear Hall underwent a massive renovation at a cost of $2 million and became the home of the mathematics, sociology, and modern languages and literatures departments. The mathematics and computer science department is now located in Jepson Hall, and sociology and anthropology moved in summer 2003 to Weinstein Hall, along with other social sciences. The department of modern languages and literatures remains in Puryear. A multimedia language lab is located in the basement.
[1] UR’s web site currently describes the cloister simply as a “covered walk.”
Sources:
Alley, Reuben E. History of the University of Richmond, 1830-1971
UR website
VBHS building file