Open house to showcase Science Hall’s past and present

When the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Science Hall was built, innovation was a big part of its design. Today, despite the building’s age, there’s still plenty of cutting-edge activity inside.

An open house from noon-4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 11, will highlight the history of the stately structure at the corner of Park Street and Observatory Drive and the work of its current occupants.

“Science Hall: Past and Present” is the theme. Starting with a kickoff program at noon in Room 180, the free public event will feature photo displays, laboratory demonstrations, brief presentations, and exhibits on topics ranging from geographic information studies to global climate change.

“Science Hall is one of the oldest, most prominent, architecturally striking, and sturdy buildings on the UW–Madison campus,” says open house organizer Ted Koch, Wisconsin’s state cartographer. “We would like visitors to see, appreciate, and enjoy the beauty and grandeur of this place and to learn about the programs and people here.”

Completed 118 years ago, Science Hall once housed nearly all of the university’s basic science departments, from anatomy to zoology. Most have long since moved to newer facilities across the campus. Today, only the geography department, several associated subunits and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies remain.

Of course, the open house will showcase examples of research and outreach in environmental studies and geography and offer information about corresponding degree and certificate programs offered in Science Hall. But the building offers much more.

Maps and mapmaking are a big attraction. The Arthur Robinson Map Library, on the third floor, is a treasure trove of 270,000 maps, charts and special images; 235,000 historic aerial photographs of Wisconsin; and hundreds of atlases, gazetteers and globes.

Upon entering, visitors encounter a 4-by-6-foot, three-dimensional model of California’s Yosemite Valley. The plaster representation of Yosemite’s glacial and postglacial geology, built in 1939 and recently refurbished, rests on a handcrafted wooden table. It is one of 19 large relief maps on display in Science Hall. Some date to the late 1800s, and all are being painstakingly restored.

At the opposite end of the building, the Cartographic Laboratory creates state-of-the-art maps digitally for universities, government agencies, publishers, and other clients. The nearby State Cartographer’s Office conducts educational programs; produces publications, fact sheets and online resources; and provides technical assistance in mapping and spatial information for people throughout Wisconsin. And the Geography Library contains more than 50,000 books and journals.

Visitors to the open house also will see the results of historically sensitive remodeling projects in Science Hall during the past couple of years that have given the Geography Department three updated laboratories and the interdisciplinary Nelson Institute a renovated classroom, seminar room and office suite.

History is another big attraction in Science Hall. The building, which housed the geology department until 1974, is a National Historic Landmark because of important contributions to the field of geology made there a century ago by professor Charles R. Van Hise. Other scholars, too, have built significant legacies within its walls.

Science Hall also was among the first buildings in the world to be structurally reinforced with steel I-beams. In fact, it was erected almost entirely of metal and masonry; only the trim and some of the floors are wooden. And for good reason: An earlier Science Hall burned to the ground on the same spot just seven years after it was finished. The replacement was designed to resist fire and whatever else nature (or careless people) might throw at it.

Most with offices in Science Hall cherish the building’s undeniable character, proud past and prime campus location. During warm weather, they also enjoy the sights and smells of a native Wisconsin plant garden maintained by volunteers that wraps around the south wing.

Wandering the broad corridors of Science Hall evokes an almost mystical sense of time and space. Older alumni still return on occasion, searching for the geology museum (which moved to Weeks Hall with the geology department). Or for the spiral slide, officially a fire escape, that provided free entertainment for generations of students (It was removed in the 1980s.). Or perhaps to glimpse of one of the ghosts said to haunt the building since the anatomy department kept corpses for dissection there long ago.

Koch has worked in Science Hall for 15 years. Has he ever seen a ghost?

“In all truthfulness, I have not,” he says. “And I have been in the attic, their purported home, a good number of times. We store some of our office materials there.

“But,” he adds, “I have seen bats, birds and an occasional mouse.”