1931 - Emerson Hall, Northwest Nazarene University - Nampa, ID
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 43° 33.764 W 116° 33.964
11T E 535044 N 4823399
Northwest Nazarene University is one of eight liberal arts universities in the United States sponsored by the Church of the Nazarene. This building was built in 1931, named for Eugene Emerson who is regarded as the school's founder in 1913.
Waymark Code: WMDZNZ
Location: Idaho, United States
Date Posted: 03/14/2012
Views: 6
EMERSON HALL, ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
NORTHWEST NAZARENE UNIVERSITY
NAMPA, IDAHO
The original campus building, still in active use. It has served as offices, classrooms, chapel, and library over the years.
When first built, the campus was little more than a few buildings out in the Idaho desert. A history of the school's first fifty years was entitled
From Sagebrush to Ivy by John E. Riley. The university now occupies a beautiful campus as the city of Nampa has grown up around it. Early photos of this building show it standing alone in a barren landscape. The campus has expanded to include the former Kurtz Park, owned for many years by the city of Nampa, with new buildings, and athletic facilities. But, the old "Ad Building," is it's known to students and faculty, is still at the heart of the campus. The stained glass window, designed by Laura Sporleder, on the front was added in 1983.
The college has maintained close ties with its sponsoring denomination, the International Church of the Nazarene, with a strong emphasis on preparing men and women for Christian service. For most of its history the school was known as Northwest Nazarene College, but achieved university status in 1999. NNU has consistently been ranked as one of the top universities in the northwest, with high academic standards and a reputation of excellence.
Some notable alumni include:
Donna Fletcher Crow , author of more than twenty books.
Dr. Kent R. Hill , Vice President for Character Development at the John Templeton Foundation, former president of Eastern Nazarene College and former president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C
Richard James Hieb , former NASA astronaut and a veteran of three space shuttle missions.
Not much is written about Eugene Emerson, who is credited as the founder of the university, and for whom this building was named. He migrated to Idaho from Kansas, and experienced a radical conversion to Christianity. His desire to find a Christian education for his children led him to establish a grammar school in 1913. But, he evidently had a higher vision influenced by a visit the year before to Pasadena College and leaders of the Church of the Nazarene including P.F. Bresee, founder of the denomination; Seth Rees, who later withdrew to form the Pilgrim Holiness denomination; and Dr. H. Orton Wiley, who eventually became the first president of Northwest Nazarene College in 1916.
Eugene Emerson was not a minister, but a businessman who established the Lloyd Lumber Co., and eventually became mayor of Nampa.
SOURCE: Stan Ingersol Nazarene Roots; Pressing the vision: Olive Winchester and northwest nazarene college. Herald of Holiness.
So, it was fitting that "the Eugene Emerson Award was established in 1985 to acknowledge the spirit of cooperation that exists between the Treasure Valley community and the university. . . . The award honors those who have contributed significantly to fostering that cooperation and by so doing, draw attention to the mutual benefit gained by both the community and the university."