Northeastern's Historic Seminary Hall Undergoes Repair

TAHLEQUAH Northeasterns grand lady of 114 years, Seminary Hall, is currently undergoing some unexpected, yet necessary repairs. During recent repairs to water-damaged areas, workers discovered that the carpet in a second floor tower room was an inch below the baseboard line. Our immediate concern was that the floor was pulling away from the wall, said James Howard, vice president for Business and Development. We immediately removed the staff and personnel around those areas until we could have a full review of the situation.

Architects and engineers called to investigate the problem quickly assessed that the twin tower floor joists had varying degrees of rot damage, a deteriorating condition that had taken place over a period of many years. According to Howard, the damage was not apparent during the 1994 renovations when work was done to limited areas of the building, including the ceilings of each floor. At the time, engineers remained confident that the infrastructure would last another 100 years.

Workers are currently stabilizing the existing floor joists in preparation for their future repair and/or replacement. A timetable for the completion of repairs has yet to be determined.

Because of the repair work, the Colleges of Arts and Letters and Social and Behavioral Sciences have been temporarily relocated. The College of Arts and Letters is housed in the NSU Shawnee Street Theatre (on the corner of College and Shawnee), and the College of Social and Behavior Sciences is located in the first-floor conference room area of Seminary Hall. Also affected are two classrooms on the second floor and offices near the towers on the third floor.
Seminary Hall is Northeasterns oldest campus building. Originally the Cherokee Female Seminary, the building was purchased from the Cherokees in 1909 and now houses academic and faculty offices and classrooms. Seminary Hall was the first campus classroom building wired for multimedia instruction.