Everything Old Is New Again —
Major Renovation of Fleck Hall

In addition to a behind-the-scenes tour of the new John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center–North Building, alumni who returned to the hilltop for Homecoming 2007, got a sneak peek at the major renovations currently underway at Fleck Hall.

Improvements include new classrooms and more offices for faculty and staff. Plus, the addition of an 8,000-square-foot third floor will feature glass-walled conference rooms offering breathtaking views of the Austin skyline.

Home to the School of Natural Sciences for nearly 50 years, Fleck Hall holds a lot of memories for alumni and faculty alike. Impressed by the facilities of the new sciences center highlighted in a recent St. Edward’s University Magazine article, Jack Houlihan, ’60, wrote, “When I was a student at St. Edward’s, a lot of our equipment was government surplus. Brother Romard Barthel would go to San Antonio on a regular basis and purchase equipment that we could use directly or we could cannibalize. My job was to take meters, such as volt meters, from the equipment and mount them for the use of the students in the labs.”

Built Fast & Made to Last

Built in 1958 in just nine months, Fleck Hall was never intended to be an architectural wonder. Like many buildings of its era, it was designed to fill an immediate need for space. At the end of World War II, university enrollment across the country had skyrocketed as veterans took advantage of the GI Bill — and St. Edward’s was no exception. Buildings such as Fleck Hall were one of the many ways the university accommodated this rapid postwar growth.

As a high school freshman living in Holy Cross Hall from 1945 to 1946, Gillespie (Bud) P. Baker Jr., hs ’48, ’55, remembers the changes on campus vividly. “The only permanent buildings were Main Building, Holy Cross Hall, Sorin Hall, the chemistry building and the rock building housing the swimming pool. In addition, there were a number of well-built and maintained semi-permanent frame structures, the largest being the gymnasium directly south of the chemistry building and the Abbey Theatre, which for the duration of the war served as a rifle range and Saturday night movie theater.”

For nearly 50 years, Fleck Hall’s 17,000 square feet of lab space, classrooms and offices allowed the School of Natural Sciences to flourish. Today, close to 300 students at St. Edward’s are majoring in the Natural Sciences — with the opening of the new John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center–North Building, student enrollment in the sciences is on the rise.

Fleck Hall will reopen its doors as home to the School of Education in 2007. And while the sight of petri dishes, test tubes and volt meters may be a thing of the past, the spirit of invention and innovation that has long inhabited the building will live on, this time serving tomorrow’s teachers.

© Copyright 2007, St. Edward’s University.