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This decapitated building may look ready for the scrap heap, but
sentimental Nebraskans would indignantly refuse to have it scrapped, for
it is the remains of the original campus building. Once it housed the
university entire, even offering sleeping room on the two upper stories
for men students.
First recollection invoked is of “Miss Bishop,” Bess Streeter Aldrich’s
filmed story of primitive university life, which had its premiere in
Lincoln. Another is Oscar Wilde’s visit to the university in the
eighties. There, garbed in his eccentric finery, he walked unhappy as a
strange cat, distressed by the uncouthness of Nebraska and its
university and especially by the ugly castiron stove which heated the
premises. After expressing this distress, along with his regular
lecture, Wilde, in knee breeches, buckled slippers and velvet coat,
shuddered his way back to the Arlington hotel, 841 Q, and was soon lost
to this region forever. Nobody was depressed over his disapproval and
irrepressible Journal reporters put him and the castiron stove into
facetious rhyme.
The cornerstone for U hall was laid Sept. 23, 1869, with
ceremonies—Masonic ceremonies, in fact. An Omaha brass band led a
procession and a thousand people banqueted—which must have more than
depopulated residential Lincoln—then danced until 4 in the morning.
Lumber for the building was shipped from Chicago to Nebraska City and
thence came slowly over the hills in wagons. Brick was burned in a kiln
on Little Salt creek. On Jan. 6, 1871, the doors swung open and in
walked ninety young men and women. Rumors that the building was unsafe
continued off and on for fifty years. Every now and then some propping
was done. Finally the two top floors and belltower were taken off, but
classes are still held on the remaining first floor.