Women at Pacific

Burning of first Herrick Hall at Pacific University

This is a photograph of the first Herrick Hall burning on Sunday, March 11, 1906. An unidentified man watches the building burn in the center of the photograph. Herrick Hall was the all-female residence hall on campus that all women were required to live in unless they had special accommodations to live in a house in the surrounding area in Forest Grove. The fire started at 11:oo am while everyone was attending church and was discovered by Professor F. T. Chapman. It was later discovered that sparks from the chimney fell on the roof and an east wind started the flames. Because the fire started at the top of the building, much of the contents of the building was able to be saved, though the building was not. It took three hours for the entire building to burn down. The fire could have easily spread to other buildings on and off-campus if it weren't for the efforts of the citizens, students, and fire department.
Herrick Hall was built in 1883 and was originally named Ladies Hall for its residents. In 1887, it was renamed Herrick Hall after the University's second president who raised money for the building.

By May, 1906, a $10,000 donation from the Carnegie Foundation and women's fundraising had raised enough money so that building plans were already in affect for a second Herrick Hall. The second Herrick Hall stood as an all-female residence hall until 1958 and burned down in 1973.

This photograph might have come out of a L. J. Corl photo album.

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