Historical Photo of the Week - Original Main Building

Before Towers Hall, this building was the main classroom facility of Otterbein College. It was located at the southwest corner of Main Street and Grove Street (seen at the bottom of the picture). Work began on the building in 1857. Though it was occupied shortly after, financial trouble kept the building from ever being completed.

Early in the morning of January 26, 1870, fire destroyed the building and all of its contents, including the libraries of the three literary societies, all of the scientific equipment and a copy of the Codex Sinaiticus, a rare translation of the New Testament that had been presented to the University by the tsar of Russia in 1865.

President Lewis Davis suspected arson, though this was never proven. In his book History of Otterbein University, the Rev. Henry Garst said "Some who were familiar with the building destroyed, with its smoky recitation-rooms, its huge and uncomfortable auditorium, occupying the entire upper story reached by a flight of stairs, have been inclined, in spite of the heavy loss, to regard its destruction as a blessing in disguise."

Later that year, plans were drawn up for a new main building to be built southwest of the "Old Main" site, utilizing the salvageable brick from the original structure. This building would become known in the next century as "Towers Hall."