Academic Facilities

Heidelberg College is located on a 110-acre campus in Tiffin (population 20,000), county seat of Seneca County and center of a prosperous agricultural, industrial and business area in northwestern Ohio.

The campus is located on the east side of Tiffin on College Hill. Heidelberg's tree-lined campus has large expanses of well-kept lawns and flowering shrubs.

Classrooms, laboratories and other buildings are within easy walking distance in the time allotted between classes. Downtown Tiffin is within a half-mile of campus, and the city's churches are conveniently near.

The old and new in architecture at Heidelberg blend harmoniously. From the pure Greek Revival lines of Founders Hall and the Victorian Gothic style of College Hall, the architecture moves toward the more modern English Gothic and to the functional style typified by Beeghly Library. In many of the buildings erected since 1907, gray Bloomville limestone, with cut Bedford stone for trim, gives a sense of unity to the various styles. Nine buildings ranging in age from 146 to 71 years are entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Aigler Alumni Building, purchased in 1961 from the Tiffin City Board of Education, was remodeled and equipped for use as a classroom, office and laboratory building. This Jacobethan-style structure contains the business and economics and psychology departments. Its name recognizes the loyal support of Heidelberg alumni, especially Allan G. Aigler, Class of 1902, a trustee of the college from 1926-60.

Bareis Hall of Science was constructed in 1964 to honor George F. Bareis, president of Heidelberg's Board of Trustees from 1899-1932, and his daughter, Grace M. Bareis, who in 1935 became the second woman named to the Board. Bareis, Heidelberg's center for the physical sciences, contains the 80-seat Frost Lecture Hall. Also housed there are offices, the Computer Center, general classrooms and labs. Bareis Hall underwent a $4 million renovation in the Summer and Fall of 2005.

Beeghly Library is the intellectual heart of Heidelberg College. Industrialist Leon A. Beeghly provided the major gift for the construction of this three story circular structure. Dedicated in 1967, the library has shelf space for 200,000 volumes. Beeghly holds the unique Besse Collection, nearly 7,000 volumes of English and American correspondence, and the Pohlable Collection of books on ballet and the circus. Also included are mechanical and technical services, audio-visual room with 70 seats, small seminar room and the computer-equiped Montague Room for study and research. In 1994, the library automated its card catalog and in 1999 became a member of OhioLINK, a state-wide academic library database and automation system. Students have easy access to periodicals, reference books and listening equipment. The Media Center is located in the library.

Brenneman Music Hall is the center for the college's musicians. The west portion, completed in 1949, was designed for use by the violin, voice, organ, piano and instrumental divisions of the music department. A three-story addition, made possible by a gift from Clara Brenneman of Wadsworth in honor of her husband, Glen, opened in the fall of 1971. The building now contains a 325-seat concert hall, a recital hall, classrooms, practice studios, the Beethoven Lounge, offices, a music library and a recording studio.

College Hall, a brick building in Victorian Gothic style, was completed in 1886 with funds raised from the Reformed Church and the Tiffin community. The bell in College Hall's tower, a local landmark, hung in the Seneca County Courthouse from 1841-84. Also known as University Hall and the U-Building, College Hall houses administrative offices, graduate studies, classrooms, fraternity halls and Rickly Chapel, a 625-seat hall named for S.S. Rickly, one of Heidelberg's founders. In 1992, a carillon, the gift of alumna Marian I. Larkin, was installed in the tower.

Founders Hall, constructed between 1851-58, holds the distinction of being the first building on the Heidelberg campus. The Greek Revival architecture was designed by one of Heidelberg's founding fathers, Jeremiah Good. The three-story brick structure, which originally served as a men's dormitory, was modernized in 1929- 30 and renovated in 1974. It houses a rehearsal theatre, FM radio station WHEI, WHEI-TV, video taping rooms, costume rooms, a dance studio, classrooms and faculty offices for the communication and theatre arts and foreign languages. Interior renovations to Founders were completed in 1992 and early 1993.

Gillmor Science Hall, the newest building on the campus, opened in January 2005. It combines with Bareis and Laird halls to form the College's science complex. Named in honor of Congressman Paul E. Gillmor, who has a demonstrated commitment to educational initiatives through his career in public service, the 42,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Gillmor Hall is home to the chemistry and biology departments, the Water Quality Laboratory and its National Center for Water Quality Research, and the archaeology department.

The George P. Gundlach Theatre, which is connected to Founders Hall, was completed and dedicated during Heidelberg's 125th anniversary celebration in 1975. Its seating capacity is 250. The theatre was built through a financial gift from the late Mr. Gundlach, Class of 1931. He received an honorary degree in 1960. A native of Tiffin who spent much of his life in Cincinnati, Mr. Gundlach envisioned Tiffin and the College as partners in civic and cultural projects. He saw the theatre as one means of strengthening that bond.

The Honors House, a handsome and appealing two- story brick structure, formerly was the president's house. Built in 1868, it was home to the Development Office until 1996 when it was renovated to accommodate the Honors Program.

Laird Hall was completed in 1913, built with funds provided by Della Shawhan Laird, widow of a prosperous Tiffin businessman. Originally built to house all sciences taught at Heidelberg, Laird has accommodated only the Department of Biology, the extensive Charles H. Jones Collection of Minerals (donated to a Cleveland museum in 1988) and the Biology Museum since the completion of Bareis Hall in 1964.

Arthur B. Pfleiderer Center for Religion and the Humanities was constructed in 1912 with a grant of $25,000 from Andrew Carnegie. Under terms of the grant, the College was to match that amount for maintenance of the building, which served as the college library for 55 years. The center was made possible in 1971-72 through a gift from Dorothy Painter Pfleiderer, Class of 1922, as a memorial to her husband, Arthur, a 1920 graduate who was a Heidelberg trustee from 1953 until his death in 1969. The Modern Gothic structure was adapted to house offices, classrooms and Herbster Chapel, a multi-purpose room with a seating capacity of 180. The center serves all religious groups on campus, filling worship and contemplative needs.