Roof Restoration Project

In 2021, Slater Memorial Museum is 135 years old. Dedicated in 1886, the building still retains an enormous amount of original architectural features and details as designed by its architect, Stephen C. Earle. The building is considered to be Earle’s career masterpiece, a monumental expression of the Romanesque Revival style that rose prominently in the late 19th century. Originally, the museum was designed to serve multiple purposes as an “athenaeum” building which was responsible for uplifting a person’s mind, body, and spirit. The auditorium served, and still serves, as the space where a person’s spirit is uplifted with music and live performances, the mind of students would be uplifted in the library which used to exist in the museum, now the present-day Sears’ Gallery. A student’s body would be uplifted through physical exercise and conditioning in the main galleries which almost became a gymnasium; these rooms now house the renowned Plaster Cast Collection.