Historical Photos

EMU will celebrate its centennial with special events throughout the academic year 2017-18. Homecoming and Family Weekend in Oct. 2017 will focus on the milestone through a special theater production, music, reunions, speakers and other festivities. Here are photos of some milestone moments from the first 100 years of life at EMC/EMU.

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  • Site of the future Eastern Mennonite School
  • Hayfield mansion in Alexandria where the first Bible classes were held in 1915.
  • First graduating class in 1919, with President J.B. Smith at the center-front.
  • Eastern Mennonite's first classroom space was in this former hotel, used from 1917 until it was razed in 1941.
  • The "Tabernacle," where graduation and other gatherings were held.
  • Earnest G. Gehman vaults in front of the Ad Building in the 1920s. Truman H. Brunk (left) and Jacob Shenk hold the bar.
  • The original Ad Building in 1923
  • The "exercise hall" in 1939 being used for homecoming
  • The 1920's "exercise hall"
  • Panoramic view of campus
  • Vesper Heights Observatory, as it was being built in 1938.
  • Vesper Heights Observatory, as it was being built in 1938.
  • Vesper Heights Observatory, as it was being built in 1938.
  • Vesper Heights Observatory
  • In the Vesper Heights observatory/planetarium, behind a Spitz machine, from left: Roy Hartzler '59, John Hershey '58, Daniel Miller Jr. '59 (behind, partially obscured), Glen M. Kauffman '60, Richard Stoltzfus '59, Joseph C. Shenk '60, Robert Hostetler '5
  • Aerial view of campus in 1941
  • The Ad Building
  • The "turkey dorm" around 1950
  • dining room in the Ad Building circa 1940
  • Crowded library conditions in the north annex of the Ad Building
  • Rachel Wenger in a 1959 yearbook photo with her future husband, Joseph B. Martin '59.
  • Students in front of the Ad Building on March 1, 1948
  • The old chapel in the Ad Building
  • Jacob Shenk's 1941 floor plan for Lehman Auditorium.
  • Lehman Auditorium under construction in 1942
  • New chapel (Lehman Auditorium) after completion in 1943
  • A 1950s-era art class sketches Lehman Auditorium
  • Fundraising for the new library in the late 1960s.
  • Maplewood and Elmwood
  • Elmwood and Maplewood
  • The central "fish pond" in 1972
  • Physical Plant staff
  • The central "fish pond" in 1939-40
  • Northlawn dormitory for women nearing completion in the mid-1950s.
  • Physical plant director Eldon Kurtz, in the mechanical room of the Campus Center in 1986
  • Typical men's dorm room in 1945-46
  • Students in the 70s
  • Ad Building renovations
  • Ad Building renovations
  • The Ad Building fire on January 17, 1984
  • The Ad Building after the fire
  • Aerial photo of campus in the mid 1950s, looking west.
  • The site of the Ad Building after the fire
  • Windows in the Ad Building after the fire
  • LeRoy Troyer, showing a conceptual sketch of what became the current seminary building, has been the lead architect for EMU for 30 years.
  • June Davidhizer in 1976 yearbook photo