Wittenberg University

For decades, Myers Hall has been the backdrop of class photos as Wittenberg welcomes first-year students and celebrates graduating seniors. In the years between Welcome Week and Commencement, friendships grow and lifelong connections form. Remember your own moment on the Myers steps, and join us as we Restore the Red: https://tinyurl.com/RestoretheRed

As we remember the fallen this Memorial Day, we reflect on the University's own history in times of war. In 1918 during World War I, the Students’ Army Training Corps established a unit of approximately 250 men at Wittenberg, and Myers Hall was turned into an army barracks. Several hundred alumni and former students served in World War I; of these, nine made the supreme sacrifice.

In his convocation address to students on December 15, 1941, just eight days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Rees Tulloss stated, “Wittenberg will support our nation in this hour without limitation. Whatever can be done by Wittenberg to serve our country will be done.”

And so, Myers Hall again became an army barracks during World War II, when 300 cadets were housed there in 1943 as part of the Army Air Force Training School. At least 2,800 men received their training on campus. Myers Hall also housed about 50 women who were studying radar at the army air fields near Dayton.

Sources: A History of Wittenberg College (1845-1945) by Harold H. Lentz and Wittenberg: An American College by William A. Kinnison

Did you know? In 1975, the National Park Service named Myers Hall, the first building on Wittenberg’s campus, to the National Register of Historic Places, confirming its worthiness of preservation. Built by Wittenberg’s founder and first president Ezra Keller and the University’s first students, the building is “a testimony to the American pioneer spirit – the propagation of education and religion amidst the crudeness of early Midwest settlements.”

As time has faded its beloved red color and deteriorated its cupola, Wittenberg invites alumni and friends to join in the effort to “Restore the Red" at https://tinyurl.com/RestoretheRed.