Buchanan Hall - University of Oklahoma - Norman, Oklahoma - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Buchanan Hall

This building is named in honor of James S. Buchanan, fourth president of the University. Buchanan was born on October 13, 1864 in Franklin, Tennessee, not far from the Civil War battle that was engaged there at the time. He graduated from Cumberland University, served as the Assistant State Superintendent of Schools for Tennessee, and taught for a year at what is now the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond before coming to the University of Oklahoma in 1895 to teach history. In 1906, he served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional convention, and he became the first dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1909. When President Stratton D. Brooks departed in 1923, he was made the acting president, and the title “acting” was removed in 1924. In 1925, Buchanan became the University’s vice president, a post which he held until his death on March 20, 1930.

Throughout his career. Buchanan was loved by students and faculty alike, who affectionately referred to him as “Uncle Buck.” He was a sparking conversationalist and after-dinner speaker, as well as an effective administrator. During his brief term as president, he organized the University’s first formal campaign for private support, the fruits of which would eventually finance the Oklahoma Memorial Union and Memorial Stadium. He successfully steered the University through one of the most troubled periods in Oklahoma’s politics. In 1929, the State Historical Society and the Oklahoma Memorial Association recognized him as one of the outstanding citizens in Oklahoma’s history. President David Ross Boyd later echoed this sentiment by writing, “Few men in Oklahoma had a wider circle of good friends. He enjoyed a long and very important service to the University and to the State.

Buchanan Hall was built in 1926 as the Liberal Arts Building, and has housed various administrative offices throughout its history.

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