Hallene Gateway - University of Illinois, Urbana, IL - Freestanding Arches on Waymarking.com

From the University of Illinois: Virtual Campus Tour site: (visit link)
Dedicated October 8, 1998, on the 63rd annual meeting of University of Illinois Foundation, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was funded through the generosity of Alan M. and Phyllis Welsh Hallene, graduates of the class of 1951. As its centerpiece, the Plaza features the original sandstone portal of the New Main University Hall (the 4th building built on the UIUC campus, in 1871, where the Union presently stands). When New Main was razed in 1938, its portal was saved and placed behind the Architecture building. Though the years the portal was slowly forgotten and eventually was moved out to Allerton Park for storage. In 1994 it was rediscovered near maintenance sheds among "brush, raspberry brushes and small trees" and a backhoe had to be called in to help unearth it. The Hallene's donated the money to restore the portal and landscape a plaza to display it in.

Plaques read:
"Hallene Gateway Plaza
This entryway to the University of Illinois Campus is the reconstructed portal from University Hall, the first university-built classroom building. Its restoration was made possible by the loyalty and generous gifts of Alan M. and Phyllis Welsh Hallene, Class of 1951. Dedicated October 8, 1998."

"The Portal from University Hall
University Hall (1871-1938) , known also as Old Main Hall, was designed in the Second Empire style by Chicago architect John Mills Van Osdel. A centerpiece for the young University of Illinois campus, this building stood on a rise just south of Green Street near the present location of the Illini Union. University Hall housed lecture rooms, classrooms, the library, a museum, an art gallery, a physical laboratory, and the Regents's Office."

A stone inscribed "1871" is in the lower part of the gate. Overhead it says "Learning & Labor."

Type: Gateway Subtype: Sculpture Location: University of Illinois campus

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