Haskett Hall, an Ohio State art building tucked away between Boyd Hall and Koffolt Laboratory, is one of the oldest structures on campus and has a storied history. Haskett Hall and its past will soon be destroyed.
“There are stairs and entrances that seem to lead to nowhere or extremely large spaces that can’t be seen from any vantage point except a hidden door,” said Rachel Heberling, a printmaking student who uses a studio in Haskett.
Heberling said she found many oddities when she first set up her studio and referred to Haskett as “one of the strangest” buildings she has entered. She found old school desks, a dissected cat model and an old radio she guessed was from the ‘40s that still works.
Originally named the Engineering Experiment Station, the building was constructed in 1925 for $178,248.68 and was designed for science experimentation, according to a report from the OSU archives.
Money for the Engineering Experiment Station was difficult to get at fist, but after a series of proposals from 1911 to 1925 from the engineering department, OSU received enough money from the state to construct equipment for industrial research, according to university archives.
The Engineering Experiment Station housed a concrete laboratory, a foundry research laboratory used to produce metal castings and a cyclotron room used to research the physics behind particle accelerators, according to a blueprint of the building from July 18, 1952.
Photographs of various experiments from these years can be found at the OSU photography archives located on Kenny Road.
A War Research Laboratory, now Boyd Hall, and a State Highway Testing Laboratory, now Johnston Laboratory, were connected to the Engineering Experiment Station. All three departments were dedicated to war research during the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, according to the Haskett Hall file from the archives.
Traces of a few experiments performed while Haskett was still the Engineering Experiment Station are still visible. For example, there are still railroad tracks in the first floor of the building that were built to test the strength of steel beams.
“(The building) has unique characteristics. Some of the remnants are still here,” said Charles Massey, an OSU printmaking professor. “At one time they ran rail cars through there. You can still see the tracks now and can still see the ridges in the floor and streets through the building.”
After World War II, the building’s use gradually became centered on arts rather than science.
The Engineering Experiment Station was officially named Frank Haskett Hall in 1968. This was in remembrance of the first OSU photography chairman Frank Haskett, who retired early in his career from sickness, according to an article from a May 1968 edition of The Lantern.
OSU formally began teaching photography in 1890. There was only one other university that taught photography that early in history, said Robert W. Wagner, former chairman of photography who is now a theater professor at OSU.
Wagner said he was hired in 1948 to work in the photography department. Photography around this time was utilized for war efforts and his personal skills in this area helped him land the job at OSU.
“I didn’t shoot anyone except with a camera,” Wagner said referring to shooting photographs from various stages of World War II.”
Photography was part of the College of Engineering at OSU for nearly 100 years, according to Wagner’s publication, “History of the Department of Photography.”
“In those days you had to know many more technical things than you do now,” Wagner said referring to why photography was part of the engineering department for so many years.
Wagner compiled a book titled “The First Hundred Years.” Photographs from 1870 through 1970 of various scenes at OSU make up this publication.
However, in 1975 OSU moved photography from the College of Engineering to the College of the Arts, according to an article in the April 1975 edition of The Lantern. At that point it was made official for students to earn a film degree.
Controversy in Haskett erupted two decades later when OSU abolished the Department of Photography and Cinema. Photography stayed in Haskett under its own department and film was moved to the west end of campus where it remains today, Wagner said.
Many students and professors were forced to move to other departments. Some students working on film were unable to finish their degrees, as the film department was taken from Haskett piece by piece.
“They were literally taking the equipment out from under me,” said Carlos Gutierrez in a 1995 The Lantern article.
Gutierrez was the last student to make a film in Haskett. He was editing his film when two men removed his bench from under him, according to the article.
Massey said the printmaking department was moved from Hopkins to Haskett in 1997 when the film department was eliminated. His major concern is not having enough room for printmaking in Hopkins where it will return after Haskett is gone.
“Jokingly we say we moved out of Hopkins because we couldn’t fit and now we are moving back,” Massey said.
The last stage of evolution for Haskett may end as early as next summer. Though an exact date has not been set, Haskett will be torn down along with Boyd Hall, Johnston Laboratory and the Aviation Building to make room for two new and improved chemistry buildings set to be ready for use by 2014.