History of Pomeroy Hall (8)


University of Vermont



In the summer of 1950 the Experiment Station Annex was named Pomeroy Hall by the University Trustees in honor of Dr. John Pomeroy, the first faculty member of the Medical College of the University of Vermont. The following year the Speech and Drama Department occupied the first two stories of the building after the Experiment Station departments in the building moved to Morrill Hall. The first floor was used for faculty offices, a large classroom, and individual clinical observation and examination rooms. New men's and women's rest rooms were also built on the first floor. The second floor was also used for offices, a classroom, and a seminar room for the debating club, and the third and fourth stories remained unoccupied.58

The Burlington Free Press reported the following in a September 22, 1951 article:

Major relocation work which has been under way at UVM this summer has reached Pomeroy Hall at 489 Main St. Occupying the first two floors of Pomeroy from now on will be the Speech Department. Previously, the building had been used by the Agricultural Experiment Station. The building became available when the station moved to Morrill Hall earlier this summer.

The Speech Department was formerly in the Old Mill, sharing the same floors with Economics and Political Science Departments. For a long time, officials said, there has been need for more space and equipment for the department.

On the first floor of the four- story building are the offices of Dr. Robert Huber, head of the Speech Department, and Dr. Eleanor Luse, head of the speech Clinic. Prof. Ronald Humphrey, Mrs. Paula Dame, radio director, and Lee Roloff, instructor in speech, have their offices on the second floor.

All drama rehearsals will be held in a second floor classroom where a movable platform is being built. A seminar room, which will be headquarters for the debating club occupies one end of the upstairs. University Players will have their office on this floor also.

At the back of the building, on the second floor, is the radio studio and control room. Here, programs are taped for future use where a line will go to WJOY and WCAX.

A console for the control room and about $4,000 worth of equipment was given to the radio department by WCAX. In the future, Dr. Huber said, remote lines will be able to come in from various campus centers. Adjoining the building on the ground floor will be the theater end of the department. Here, dressing rooms and storage space will be available, and all make-up and costuming will be done eventually.

A large barn behind Pomeroy Hall will, in time, be set up as the only place for audience broadcasts in Burlington. After the inside is torn out and redone, the barn will be semi- sound proofed.

Seating capacity is estimated at 150. In the barn, acting and directing will be taught and all laboratory plays will be given. The little theater will be open to select groups. Classes in the new Speech Building were held for the first time yesterday.

Most of the renovation work is being done by under the direction of the Buildings and Grounds Department. Some of the work, however, was completed by members of the speech faculty.

Members of the department feel that Pomeroy is an ideal location, for here all clinical, dramatic, radio, and class work is now consolidated.

Although the third and fourth floors are now vacant, plans for their occupancy by another department are in progress.

WRUV made its official debut broadcast from its studios in Pomeroy in January 1955. The program was carried was carried via a closed circuit system to the men's dormitories, Grasse Mount, Converse Hall, and the Redstone Campus.

The studios in Pomeroy Hall and the barn continued to be used until the mid 1980s.59

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©1995 UVM Historic Preservation Program
Revised 12/11/95 by TDVisser
histpres@moose.uvm.edu
URL: http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/HPJ/Pomeroy/pom.8.html