Beatrice Carr Wallace/Old Science Hall - University of Oklahoma - Norman, Oklahoma - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Beatrice Carr Wallace
Old Science Hall

In 1893 three years after the First Legislative Assembly of the Oklahoma Territory established the University of Oklahoma the first building on campus was completed. It was the first physical evidence of President David Ross Boyd’s efforts to build a university from the ground up. Delays in construction caused the initial classes to be held in a rented building in downtown Norman. On September 6, 1893, however, the student body moved into what was originally called University Building. Known after 1902 as Science Hall, the building housed both classrooms and administration offices.

On the night of January 6, 1903, Science Hall was completely destroyed by the first of the University’s tragic fires. Work began immediately to replace the building, and in 1904, this building, then known as New Science Hall, was completed to accommodate the science laboratories and other classes. New Science Hall is especially remembered for the pioneering faculty who concurrently taught there. Boyd himself served on the first faculty, teaching grammar, Latin, and arithmetic. Edwin DeBarr, French S.E. Amos, and William Rice, the first three faculty members hired at OU, all taught in New Science Hall.

More than a century after its construction, the building was renamed in 2006 by the OU Board of Regents to honor OU alumna Beatrice Carr Wallace. A native of Atoka, Oklahoma, Mrs. Wallace served on the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Board of Visitors as well as on the advisory committee for the campaign to build the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. A gift to the University from Ms. Wallace and her husband, W. Ray Wallace, established one of the largest scholarship endowments in OU’s history. Their first to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art was one of the most significant donations to the acquisitions fund in the museum’s history at that time and helped to significantly enhance the number of Old Masters drawings in the museum’s collections. Through their service and generosity, the Wallaces greatly enhanced the educational and cultural resources of the University.

The Beatrice Carr Wallace Old Science Hall is the oldest remaining building on campus. It stands as a constant reminder of the absolute determination of President David Ross Boyd and the first faculty to overcome any obstacle to build a great university for the generations that would follow them.

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