herr2ck: Commie Hall

September 2025.

Converse Hall, or “Commie Hall” as it is affectionately nicknamed, is the home of the ROTC program at Ohio State. It’s in a rather odd location and doesn’t house normal classes, so it’s a more niche work of campus architecture with a brief but compelling history. Converse Hall is located on the very northwest tip of main campus, bordered by a parking lot and Lane Avenue to the north, Remembrance Park and Woody Hayes Drive to the south, Tuttle Park Place and the Blackwell to the east, and St. John Arena to the west.

History

The ROTC Building as it appeared in 1949. (Buckeye Stroll)

Converse Hall was designed in 1940 by university architect Howard Dwight Smith as the “ROTC Building,” supplementing the then-extant Armory. Construction was done by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and took place from February 1941 to early 1942, at a cost of $138,541. It was originally meant to house field artillery for the ROTC.

Smith designed an addition soon after construction finished in 1942, which added a story onto each side of the building. (If you look closely, you can see the additions on the above image.) It was built by G. W. Atkinson & Son from December 1942 to mid-1943, costing $71,325. This addition brought the building to 45,562 square feet.

Converse Hall c. 1987. (Buckeye Stroll)

The architecture of Converse Hall is pretty nondescript--it even uses concrete masonry units (i.e. cinderblocks) as its main exterior cladding. I’d imagine that was a WPA choice and not that of the university. I also thought the millennial-gray paint would be a modern design choice, but it seems like that was always the case.

University Archives stacks inside Converse Hall, 1980s. (University Archives)

In 1980, the University Archives was located inside Converse Hall. (Previously, it did not have a permanent campus location.) Apparently, one of their rooms was located right next to the firing range, which obviously interfered with research a bit. They used that space until 1995, when the Book Depository building on Kenny Road opened.

COL George Converse, undated.

The ROTC Building was officially named “Converse Hall” in 1973 after Colonel George L. Converse, Jr. Converse originally enrolled at Ohio State, but received an appointment to West Point after his first quarter. After graduation in 1880 he fought against Geronimo and the Apaches, where he was shot in the eye and had to travel 40 miles on horseback for treatment. The bullet remained for the rest of his life and he wore an eye patch, as seen above. (According to contemporary students, he could see better with one eye than most people could with two.) After serving in the Spanish-American War, he became the first Commandant of Cadets at OSU in 1900. During World War I, he was the examining officer for Ohio’s officer training camps.

Converse is most notable for writing the Ohio Plan, along with William Oxley Thompson, Edward Orton Jr., and Ralph Mershon, which eventually established a national ROTC program. He left Ohio State in 1918 after his promotion to district inspector and retired in 1920. Converse died in 1946.