The 1904 Administration Building

Images of the 1904 Administration Building (top) and its third floor auditorium room. It served the school for 19 years. Note the lettering over the entrance; "North Texas State Normal". The auditorium could seat up to 1200 students. The school once held daily religious services in the auditorium. Student attendance was mandatory until around 1923.

This building was torn down in 1923 to make room for the current Auditorium.  The materials were used to build Harriss Gymnasium, which was torn down around 1956 to make room for the current Administration Building. It is unclear where these materials ended up after this period.

Main Auditorium Interior

     The interior of the Main Auditorium sometime around the 1920s or 1930s. Note the windows on the sides. These were removed in 1993. The Main Auditorium originally had more than 2500 opera chairs, and was conceived as holding roughly 3000 persons. These seats were removed in 1989 in order to use the Auditorium as a lecture hall.

     The organ console, in the lower left corner of the photograph, is believed to be the original 1924 console. The organ received a new console in 1949.

Interior of the Auditorium

     The interior of the Main Auditorium, as seen from the balcony. The middle of the photograph shows the stage. Just below the stage is the Möller console. Although the console is from 1949, the majority of the instrument can be traced back to 1924. The Möller's pipes are located behind the grills on either side of the stage.

     The organ in the right of the photograph is the 1985 Bedient French Classical. This organ was installed in 2003.

     This photograph is a panoramic shot composed of eight or more photographs.

 

The Main Auditorium

The Main Auditorium at the University of North Texas. Construction began in 1923. The building opened in 1924. The Main Auditorium is the third oldest building on the UNT campus (Curry Hall and the Power Plant are the olest two).

There is a wealth of history surrounding the building, though much of it has never been written. The official UNT history book features no more than four sentences about the Main Auditorium. It is an oversight that this blog wishes to correct.

This work is in progress. Please stay tuned for more information.