Athleteon/ Science Hall/ Wildy Hall, McKendree University

The three-story brick building behind and between the Old Main and Bothwell Chapel buildings was built in 1868 as a one-story gymnasium called the "Athleteon." There wasn't much of an organized athletics program at McKendree College at the time, and the little-used building became a large study hall. The building was taken over by the Science Department in 1893 and became "Science Hall." In 1916, the roof of the building was removed, the interior was divided into rooms, and two more floors were added. The building was renovated for administrative offices in the late 1970s and was renamed Wildy Hall. Offices for the university's president and provost are located in Wildy Hall, as well as student financial services.

Students at McKendree College helped build the Athleteon, under a student organization called the Athleteon Association. Funds were donated for the project. Since there were no dorms on campus in the nineteenth century, and not much use of the gymnasium for recreation, desks were eventually set up in the Athleteon for students to use when not in class. Mandatory attendance at study hall proved unpopular with the student body, so rules were relaxed. In years when enrollment was low, the college would not go to the expense of heating the Chapel building, whose large hall could seat 500, due to cost-cutting measures. So that left Old Main and the Athleteon as the main campus buildings in use. The Science Department claimed the building as their own in 1893 when A.B. Waggoner was Professor of Science.

In 1894, a Sanborn map of campus shows the one-story brick building as "Hall." The former Athleteon was then one of three brick buildings on campus, with the Old Main building to the southwest and the Chapel to the southeast. In the rear yard of Old Main, west of the Athleteon, was a small, one-story wood frame building where coal was stored. In between the coal shed and Old Main was a round cistern for water storage. A dwelling was located further west of the shed, with a one-story, rectangular main block made of wood with a rectangular brick wing to the north of its west end. This probably served as the home of the president of the college (the Stevenson House, the current president's house on College St. south of College Square, didn't gain that function until the late 1910s). A new building, Eisenmayer Auditorium, was added on the east edge of campus on Alton St. in 1903, to serve as a gymnasium.

The 1914 Sanborn map depicts "Science Hall" as a one-story building with a basement where two heaters were located. After the roof-raising and the addition of a second and third story to Science Hall in 1916, the biology lab occupied the second floor and the chemistry lab was on the third floor. The ground floor was divided into three classrooms, for chemistry, biology, and mathematics. There was just one staircase to the second and third floors, made of wood and in the center of the building. This posed a fire hazard. In 1938, metal fire escapes were salvaged from the old Lebanon Grade School building and were added onto the sides of Science Hall.

A new science building (Voigt Science Hall) was constructed in 1965. Alexander Wildy donated funds that were used to renovate the old Science Hall in the late 1970s; the building was renamed Wildy Hall in his honor. Wildy Hall was designed to hold administrative offices for the college. In July 2007, McKendree College began transitioning into McKendree University. The university is comprised of McKendree College of the Arts and Sciences plus three schools offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business, Education, or Nursing and Health Professions.

Dennis, James M. McKendree College Course Catalog 2007-2008, McKendree College. January 1st, 2007. Accessed December 26th, 2022. https://www.mckendree.edu/academics/info/course-catalogs/mck-07-08-catalog.pdf.

Keller, Steve. McKendree College History Committee. McKendree College History 1928-1978. Paducah, KY. Turner Publishing Company, 1996.

McKendree University. Interactive map, Campus Map. January 1st, 2022. Accessed December 20th, 2022. https://www.mckendree.edu/about/visitor/campus-map.php.

McKendree University. McKendree Presidents, McKendree University. January 1st, 2022. Accessed December 26th, 2022. https://www.mckendree.edu/offices/president/presidents.php.

Sanborn Map Company. Map of Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois. New York, NY. Sanborn Map Company, 1894.

Sanborn Map Company. Map of Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois. New York, NY. Sanborn Map Company, 1914.

Walton, William Clarence. Centennial McKendree College with St. Clair County History. Lebanon, IL. McKendree College, 1928.