At the time of the Old Normal fire in 1902, work was underway on a second campus building, a new Science Hall just a few hundred feet to the east of Academic to accommodate the recently created Department of Chemistry and Agriculture. By that summer – with insurance money from the fire – construction commenced on a third campus structure, the Training School.
Both Science Hall (today’s Carnahan Hall) and Training School (today’s Art Building) were designed to President Dearmont’s specifications by St. Louis architect Jerome Bibb Legg and built by local contractor Edward F. Regenhardt. With identical exterior dimensions their south-facing facades are the same white limestone, or Cape Girardeau “marble.”
To save money, the rear walls are cheaper red brick because campus did not extend
northward behind them. At Louis Houck’s recommendation four Missouri coats of arms were cast in bronze and positioned in the pediments above each building’s two front doors.
Thus, Carnahan and Art are Southeast’s two “sister” halls and upon opening in 1903, their aesthetic continuity established the model for future campus buildings in regard to material and color, including new Academic Hall. In fact, the official dedication of Academic Hall in May 1906 also marked the dedication of the Science Hall, Training School, Manual Training and the Power Plant.
In 1998 the university renovated and renamed Science Hall as A.S.J. Carnahan Hall. The Training School became home to Art and Home Economics in 1979.
