FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (10/97)
Contact: Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service
318-869-5120 or 869-5709
SHREVEPORT, LA -- Centenary College will dedicate its newest residence hall, which is also its oldest, during festivities at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 on campus.
Built in 1930, the former Rotary Hall -- once a men's dormitory and once a women's dormitory -- is now Rotary Hall Suites, a coed facility with three floors of apartment-style suites, an attic with studio apartments and a ground floor with adaptable conference facilities.
The dedication will include music by the Centenary Brass, a quintet, as well as a reception, building tour and campus wide picnic. Special guests will be former residents of Rotary Hall, as well as local members of the Rotary Club and officials of the Union Pacific Resources Co., whose gift enabled the equipping the Rotary Conference Center.
Most Rotary Hall suites contain two-bedroom, two-bath apartments that include generous living and kitchenette areas that are entered from an exterior balcony. Balconies overlook a central exterior terrace next to the college's expanding Arboretum.
Other amenities include new and updated finishes throughout the building and laundry rooms on each floor. The technology available in each apartment includes prewiring for television, computer and telephone lines. There are two computer/telephone stations per bedroom area and one in the living area. This allows students the full range of computer, Internet and on-campus networking capabilities that are needed in today's college environment. For those tudents who desire a more solitary living arrangement, one-bedroom, one-bath apartments are available as are three single-occupancy attic loft efficiency apartments. These lofts feature open heavy timbers and wood decking of the original building. The technological capabilities available in the two-bedroom apartments are also available in the loft apartments.
The facility is open to male and female students, although individual apartments and suites are occupied by either all-male or all-female residents.
The ground floor comprises a common lobby and conference center encompassing five separate meeting rooms. These rooms incorporate the new technology available in the student living areas, including prewiring for current and future learning technologies.
Two of the meeting rooms have a common movable partition, allowing the rooms to open together for larger conferences. This area has been purposely designed to allow the greatest degree of flexibility in use and numbers of people. These conference areas, which are still awaiting some furnishings, will be available for school and community functions, as well as local and out-of-town organizations.
The $2.4 million renovation project is a part of an overall $7 million bond project that is funding a number of campus projects, including heating and air conditioning improvements, new residence hall furniture, a bus, various lighting projects, and a library networking system.
Rotary Hall was presented to the college by the Rotary Club of Shreveport in 1930. It originally consisted of 36 rooms, a guest room, reception area and matron's quarters. Like most dormitories constructed during this time, it had a central corridor on each floor with stairways at each end. Each bedroom had its own lavatory, but shared a central toilet/shower area located on each floor.
A 32-room annex on the south end of the dormitory was completed in 1954, and in 1963, the original building was completely remodeled by the college. On the building's 50th anniversary, an endowed maintenance fund was established for the building and the lobby of the 1930 wing was renovated.
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