herr2ck: Black Tie

September, later December 2025.

The Faculty Club is a very unique building at Ohio State, mainly due to its program. Nowhere else on campus is a building designed for and used primarily by rich alumni and donors. It’s always quite the spectacle to see their fancy cars when an event is being held there, but the bourgeoisie tend to have a bit of a staring problem. (“Harumph! Back in my day students wore coats and ties to class and didn’t have those new-fangled smartphones.”)

The Faculty Club is located on the south side of the Oval, bordered by the green space of the Oval to the north, the South Oval to the south, Orton Hall to the east, and Mirror Lake to the west.

Botanical Hall History

Botanical Hall as it originally appeared, 1885. (University Photoarchives)

Prior to the construction of the Faculty Club, the site was occupied by Botanical Hall. It was a small brick building, quite similar to a Queen Anne house in appearance. Botanical Hall was designed in 1883 by J. T. Harris, and it was built between 1883 and 1884 at a cost of $15,000. A small addition was made to the west side of the building in 1896, and the greenhouse was expanded.

The inside of the greenhouse c. 1896. (Knowlton Archives)

The original conservatory and greenhouses were removed between 1913 and 1914, when the Botany department moved to its new greenhouses behind Jennings Hall. The conservatory was replaced by another brick addition to Botanical Hall. At this point, the building was renovated for usage by the State Health Department as a laboratory, and the addition was used to house animals which supplied the lab’s blood.

At some point, the roof was also altered, as seen in the bottom photo. The original pointy eaves and dormers were removed in favor of a simpler hipped roof.

For a very brief period of time, Botanical Hall and the Faculty Club coexisted. This photo dates between 1940-1941. (Knowlton Archives)

The addition that replaced the original conservatory was demolished between 1938 and 1939 for the construction of the Faculty Club. However, Botanical Hall still stood north of the building. Its actual date of demolition is unknown, but John Herrick notes some pertinent information that narrows it down a bit. The State Health Department moved out of the building by June 4, 1941, and the Lantern reported that Oval Drive would be widened in the autumn (an action not possible with Botanical Hall standing, since its footprint extended to the old boundary of the road), so it was razed sometime during the summer of 1941.

Faculty Club History

The Faculty Club inside Bricker Hall c. 1930. (University Archives)

The Faculty Club’s beginnings can be traced back to 1915, where the first mention was recorded in Board of Trustees minutes. In 1916, Frank Pomerene authorized the construction of a “faculty club house” on campus, which was originally to be placed between Oxley Hall and the old Ohio Union (now Hale Hall), likely near where Kuhn House stands today. These fell through, and the Faculty Club was instead planned as part of the construction of the Administration Building (now Bricker Hall). It occupied space on the third floor from the building’s completion in 1924 until the construction of the dedicated Faculty Club building.

Howard Dwight Smith’s elevation of the Faculty Club, looking south. Note the unbuilt architrave and ornamental urns over the portal’s columns, in addition to a window in place of the central relief. (Knowlton Archives)

The Faculty Club was designed in 1939 by university architect Howard Dwight Smith. It’s kind of tough to nail down a specific style to the building--my attribution is Neoclassical due to the symmetry and classical columns by the entrance, but I could be wrong. Construction began in May 1939 by Trapp-Carroll Co., and it was largely completed by March 1940. The building has a reinforced concrete and steel frame with a brick exterior, and it cost about $171,000 to build.

A 1942 view of the Faculty Club. (Buckeye Stroll)

A small addition was built on the south side of the Faculty Club as part of a project that remodeled and expanded the kitchens. It was designed in 1965 by Karlsberger and Associates and completed a year later, at a cost of $106,000. This brought the building’s area to 19,240 square feet.

The entrance of the Faculty Club in 1964. (Buckeye Stroll)

In February 1989, the Board of Trustees approved a $1.5 million renovation to the Faculty Club, which was planned by Withers & Associates. It brought the interior up to code and improved the loading dock and kitchens. The project was completed two years later in 1991.

The “Grand Lounge” of the Faculty Club, undated. (Knowlton Archives)

The Faculty Club also serves as a sort of art museum for the university, as it displays artwork and photography done by alumni and members of the club. Although this was a tradition since the club’s founding, it was formalized in the 1990s.

Currently, the Faculty Club is an event venue on Ohio State’s campus, as well as a social club that alumni can join. Their website goes to great lengths to emphasize the benefits of membership, but I’m a little skeptical. Are the top hat and monocle included?

Photos

This is gonna be a quicker one, since I just did the exterior of the Faculty Club. The main facade faces north, so unfortunately it is always in shadow and its nice details are harder to make out.

The brickwork here has lots of subtle details, such as the various soldier courses and denticulated portion above the windows. Also note the large stone quoins. Detail of the two columns by the entrance:

These are heavily modified Ionic columns, which jut out from the wall as the entablature projects with them. This is a common Second Empire move, but less common on a building like this. There’s also various carvings across this area, such as the bead-and-reel pattern around the doorway.

Decorative panel above:

I like the ornamental panels surrounding the windows, too.

The doors have fancy ironwork:

The west side of the north facade has the same north-extending wing, but it has a large window instead of another reason:

Loading dock area:

At one point, a course of stone almost trickles down from the roof and ends with this flourish of an unusually decorated window:

Lots of trees on the south and west sides.

South facade:

The windows back here are nice and large, and they have an interesting brickwork surround:

The door below has cool carvings, too.

The balcony area is really nice. It’s always filled with people on game days, but most of the time it’s empty.

Little balconette at the southwest corner:

The Faculty Club is not scheduled for renovation, according to Framework 3.0.

* * *

I didn’t expect to get interior photos of the Faculty Club while I was a student, but my girlfriend had a banquet for her accounting program in December 2025, and with her knowing my antics I was able to come along and get some photos. We were at the table directly in front of the first floor dining room’s entrance:

Note the fancy wooden doors and abstracted Ionic columns. I also have a photo of the rest of the dining room, but there’s too many people in it. (I try to avoid having people in my shots, especially close-ups, as I feel it may invade privacy.)

Entrance doors from inside: