21. Kellogg Center/Dickie Hall

This building was previously known as South or Dickie Hall, built in 1858.  A description of South Hall in 1870, upon the completion of renovations to the building stated, "Upon entering the door, we find a hall running through from west to east.  On the south side of the hall is a suit [sic] of rooms capable of being thrown into one large room by folding doors.  One of these rooms contains the library, the other the reading-room, and both are suitably and even elegantly furnished." (Detroit Free Press, December 14, 1870) The stucco west end of the building served for nearly a century as the Chapel.

As the chapel for the College, South Hall was dedicated on December 13, 1870.  Speakers at the dedication included Reverends L.R. Fisk and S. Clements of Ann Arbor, Dr. George B. Jocelyn, former Albion College president, Dr. McEldowney of Detroit, President Silber of Albion, Reverend W.H. Perrine of Lansing, and Reverend J. M. Reid of Chicago.  The building had been under construction for many years, having stood unfinished and unfurnished since 1861.  Fred L.D. Groff, whose wife attended the Seminary and Female Institute during the 1950's, as Albion was then called, reminisced about that period in the May 1947 Io Triumphe:

"The chapel...was not completed for a long time, (and) was a dove house for years.  The (interior of) the building was one story high of brick with open rafters above...The outside was completed in good shape.  But...boys threw stones through the windows and doves flew in.  The boys then climbed up on the brick wall and got up into the rafters after the doves.  There were hundreds and hundreds of them..."

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Original, South, Central, and North Buildings, not dated.

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A note in the 1869 Board of Trustees minutes stated that they met in the "Library Hall", the first such reference to indicate that the college library had moved into the Chapel sometime previous to the meeting.  The library was definitely in the building by March 16, 1870.  It was not made clear in the College catalogue what was finally housed in Dickie until the 1874-75 academic year.  It states that the structure contained the administrative offices, the library and reading rooms, and the College Chapel.

South Hall was renovated again in 1939, enlarging the chapel, adding a stage and several music rooms.  The dedication ceremony featured F. Dudleigh Vernor on the newly rebuilt organ in the reconstructed chapel.

The newer east end of the building was constructed in 1995 with a large gift from the Kellogg Corporation, headquartered in this county, in Battle Creek.  Dickie Hall is now part of the Kellogg Center.

The building is currently the social center of the campus community. It houses the campus post office, the book store, the campus radio station, student offices, lounge areas, meeting rooms, a snack bar, a study loft featuring the original hand-hewn beams, and a large general purpose room.

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The most famous fraternity song of all time, "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi", was written in this building by two Albion students, possibly on this piano?
Fall 1995 construction	Back of the Kellogg Center, Dickie Hall	The Loft	WLBN
Lango Living Room	The Stack

It is interesting to note that one of America's best loved hymns, "The Old Rugged Cross", was also written in Albion, in what was then a boarding house just across the street from Palenske Hall.

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