West Virginia University - News and Information Services
WVU rededicates Oglebay Hall - new home to forensic, classroom tech effort
'This isn't just a building - it's Oglebay'
For generations, Oglebay Hall was the place West Virginia University students went to when they wanted to learn about crop rotation or cognitive development.
Now, the stately structure that once housed the agriculture school and psychology department is again open for business. And this time, it’s sporting a $23.5 million upgrade and new mission that WVU says will take its use well into the 21st century and beyond.
Even as the refurbished Oglebay is in full swing for the fall semester, students, University officials and outgoing President David C. Hardesty Jr. paused today (Aug. 29) to rededicate the building, a high-tech computer lab.
Oglebay is the new home of WVU’s marquee Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program and its research arm, the Forensic Science Initiative. It also houses the University’s office of Classroom Technologies, an operation that maintains every computer system in every classroom on the Downtown and Evansdale campuses.
The project is part of an ongoing multimillion-dollar renovation on the Downtown campus that also includes extensive upgrades to Brooks and Colson halls.
The Oglebay atmosphere
With all the monitors, modems and other high-tech trappings, one might expect a clinical, sterile atmosphere in the building. And while forensic labs and classrooms on the 2nd- and 3rd floors boast that look out of necessity, Oglebay’s ground floor and 1st floor do offer an environment that gives a respectful nod to the past – even as it outfits itself for the future.
When proposals for the project first crossed Hardesty’s desk, the president had just one directive: that Oglebay’s architectural integrity be respected and maintained.
That was out of historical – and social – obligation, Hardesty said.
“Alumni often associate landmark buildings with their time at WVU and their affection for the institution and its people,” said Hardesty, himself a 1967 WVU grad who went on to study at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar before earning a Harvard law degree.
The buildings of Woodburn Circle are campus icons, Hardesty said, as are Purinton House, Stewart Hall and E. Moore Hall. Add Oglebay to that list, he said.
While he’s amazed at Oglebay’s interior, he’s pleased that the renovation was done in such a way that the building is still the same on the outside.
“That was beautifully done,” he said, “and I want to congratulate the men and women of our physical plant and the contractors for their outstanding work. Preserving Oglebay’s dignified and omnipresent exterior allows our campus to welcome alumni and friends who remember the building and associate it with their time at WVU.”
Oglebay, in time
With its classic design, Oglebay is one of 10 WVU buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. It was named for Earl W. Oglebay (1849-1926), the Northern Panhandle agriculture magnate and state benefactor. Wheeling’s marquee Oglebay Park also bears his family’s name.
The 50,000-square-foot Oglebay Hall was put up in 1918 to house the agriculture school, and in keeping with the architectural life and times of the period, the soon-to-be-dubbed “Farmer’s Castle” was built in the French Beaux Arts style – with sweeping columns in the front and swooping windows throughout to give natural light to the intellectual spark contained therein.
“We wanted to bring Oglebay in line,” said Eric Rosie, a WVU construction manager overseeing the work by Pittsburgh’s Massaro Corp., “but we didn’t want it to look like we grafted on a bionic arm, or anything like that. You do get the sense of the original Oglebay.”
That sense is created by using Oglebay’s original wood doors and trim, along with reproductions of period lighting in the halls. A bank-style vault installed when the building sold milk from the dairy farm will be used by forensic students in bank robbery scenarios for their classes.
A ‘whodunit’ in the Hall
And that couldn’t be more of an arresting development for Dr. Keith Morris, who directs the forensic science program here. Morris was heading South Africa’s national crime laboratory system when he came to WVU. The program’s reputation reeled him in, he said, and the Oglebay upgrade will be even more of a draw for others.
Classrooms and labs are spacious and full of cutting-edge equipment for DNA analysis and other sleuthing methods that are just as much about white lab coats as they are yellow police tape. There’s even a “bone-grinding room” adjacent to one of the main labs that will be used by budding forensic examiners.
“I can’t think of a better place in the world for students to learn and practice forensic science,” Morris said, “and I do have an international perspective. The fact that we’re housed in this stately and charming building makes it even better. In future years you can bet that there are going to be lots of crimes solved by professionals who got their start in the classrooms and labs of Oglebay Hall.”
The Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program is part of WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and Eberly Dean Mary Ellen Mazey echoed Morris’ remarks.
Oglebay Hall, she said, is a history lesson that isn’t done with its teaching. That’s why she feels it’s the perfect home for a program that’s making WVU known across the globe.
“When we look at Oglebay,” she said, “we can see where we’ve been, and where we’re going. That’s been the spirit of this renovation from the first day on. This isn’t just a ‘building’ – it’s Oglebay Hall.”
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