Lincoln Christian University Bids
Farewell to Original Campus Building
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[November 07, 2023]
Lincoln
Christian University (LCU) has said goodbye to the first building
built as part of its campus. Timothy Hall has been in the process of
demolition over the last month after multiple issues were discovered
that, in essence, “totaled” the building. Demolition was planned and
contracted before LCU’s October announcement of its cessation of
operations effective May of 2024.
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Timothy Hall had served almost every function
necessary to college operations other than cafeteria and gym, which
were constructed shortly after Timothy Hall was completed in 1951.
According to Dr. Tom Tanner (LCU alum and LCU administrator for 33
years) in his book “Verses and Voices: The Story of Lincoln
Christian College and Seminary– 65 Years of Lincoln Leaders
1944-2009,” at its dedication on June 1, 1951, the Administration
building, as it was called then, “had room for three administrators,
12 faculty, 10 classrooms, and a library with 7,000 volumes.” The
cost to build it was “just over “$100,000, almost all of it coming
from small gifts from churches and individuals.” The school itself
was seven years old.
Over the next decade, the school grew from 250 to 500 students and a
new Administration building was completed in 1960. Timothy Hall then
began immediate use as the home for Lincoln Christian Seminary. At
the rededication of Timothy Hall as the Seminary building and
dedication of the new Administration building, Dr. Tanner reports
that the campus newsletter records 3,000 people from around the
region attending the ceremony. Lincoln Christian Seminary grew from
51 students to 100 over the next five years, requiring greater
space, and so Restoration Hall, the current home of LCS, was built
in 1965. Thus, Timothy Hall embarked on a new era.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/08/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png)
Over four decades of LCU students will remember
Timothy Hall not as classrooms and offices, but as a dormitory. One
end of Timothy Hall briefly served as a women’s dormitory coinciding
with the Seminary usage, and then for one semester as a men’s
dormitory before the whole building became the first men’s residence
on campus in August of 1965.
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![](../images/110823PIX/lcu%20timothy%20hall_small.jpg)
Timothy "The Hole" Hall at Lincoln Christian College taken from social media.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png)
A few years later the dorm
received the name that it would be known as for the duration of
its time as a men’s dorm. Dr. Tanner explains, “Actually, it was
the local fire marshal who coined the name. After inspecting the
dorm in the fall of 1968 after a prolonged power outage, he
simply remarked, ‘What a hole.’ And the name has stuck ever
since.” “The Hole” was a men’s residence for the next decades
and operated much like a fraternity with traditions, rituals,
and occasional shenanigans. Residents were called “Holers” and
built a community and a loyalty that still resonates with LCU
alumni.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Nov/08/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_CHRISTMASOPEN_2023.png)
In 2007, “The Hole” was once again recommissioned,
this time as the Timothy Center for Global Ministry. It was
refurbished with offices and a conference room to house the
Christian Ministries Field, which included preaching and youth
ministries, along with missions and other departments. It came full
circle providing space for faculty and administrative offices as was
part of its original purpose. It continued under this use until May
of 2022, when LCU restructured and downsized, concentrating all
offices and classrooms in Restoration Hall and the Administration
building.
Dr. Tanner’s retrospective on Timothy Hall was originally written as
an address at its recommissioning from “The Hole” to Timothy Center
for Global Ministry on Founders Day in May of 2007. His final words
of the address carry a new poignancy as the building is now a rubble
of bricks and metal and the school is in its final months. He
writes, “It is fitting we bid adieu to this dormitory today, for
‘adieu’ simply means ‘To God.’ Today, Timothy, we bid you adieu.
We give you ‘to God.’”
[Stephanie Hall] |