Thanks to SCARC Natural Resources Archivist Ruth Vondracek for this post!

Peavy Hall Awaiting Demolition 2016

What happens when a College decides to demolish an existing building and rebuild? How do you relocate everyone and what happens to the 45-year accumulation of papers, research data, films, videos, photographs, slides and CDs, carefully tucked away in closets and storage rooms, or faculty offices? Well, you call in the archivists (and others of course, but we are mostly concerned with the archivists.) That’s exactly what happened last year when the College of Forestry decided to build a new Peavy Hall on the site of the old building.

The current Peavy Hall, constructed in 1971 and dedicated in 1972, created much needed space for the fast-growing School of Forestry. It was noted then that the School of Forestry “took a big leap of progress this year moving from the old forestry building built in 1917 to Peavy Hall, an attractive and modern structure… ” Since then hundreds of forestry students, faculty members and staff have passed through its halls. At least one retired faculty member, Mike Newton, remembers when Peavy Hall was built and when he moved into his first office in the building.

Dean Carl Stoltenberg and T.J. Starker Peavy Hall Groundbreaking 1969

Peavy Hall 1972

Last May, Ruth Vondracek, SCARC’s Natural Resources Archivist, began discussions with College of Forestry departments and faculty members about what materials might be appropriate for the SCARC collections. As can be expected the last months before the move-out were hectic as long-stored collections were revealed and transferred. Ruth and Karl McCreary, SCARC’s Accession Archivist, made many round trips between Peavy Hall and SCARC, loading and unloading boxes. They reviewed and transferred over 15 separate collections to SCARC. Included in the transfer were faculty papers from John Bliss, Loren Kellogg, Mike Newton, Bill Ripple, and Steve Tesch, among others. Additions to the Office of the Dean, Research Office, Environmental Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory (ERSAL) Records, Forest Fire Research, Communications (Publications) Group, and the College’s Photograph Collection also made their way to SCARC. Because of the volume of the transfers it may be awhile before the collections are processed and made available.

Karl Wrangling Reprints