Every once in a while, rather than remember the happiest of IWU times, we should pay tribute to those more sobering moments. On the evening of Saturday, January 9th, 1943, Hedding Hall caught fire and was destroyed.
Hedding Hall – also known as “Old Main” – was built in 1870; its destruction spurred post-World War II campus development. While this building never housed the official campus library, several departmental and literary society libraries were housed there, suffering a complete loss.
Check out this photo and other historial IWU photos in our digital collection accessible at http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/index_iwu_histph.php?CISOROOT=/iwu_histph.