Welcome!
91ӣƵ's scenic campus in Decatur, Illinois has a 125 year history. If you follow the sequence below, you will be able to compare historical photos to today's campus, and learn about the people, places, and events that have made Millikin what it is today!
Numbers refer to the building numbers on the Millikin campus map (which also has information about parking and handicap access).
Start by locating #9 on the campus map (Shilling Hall). Walk until you are between the campus gates and lanterns near West Main Street.
Next, look north down the sidewalk towards the building with the tall clock tower in the center.
Shilling Hall
Shilling Hall Construction, 1902
Shilling Hall is one of 91ӣƵ’s first buildings, and the one James Millikin had the most input on. Architects Patton & Miller of Chicago designed it in the Elizabethan style as three buildings that stood about 25 feet apart and were connected by arcades on two levels: Liberal Arts Hall (the center portion, with the tower and clock), Domestic Science (the portion to the right, or east of the tower), and Science & Engineering (the portion to the left, or west of the tower). Since the construction of these first three buildings, Millikin’s buildings have all been brick.
The general contractor was H.B. Walter of Danville and the bricks were made by the Decatur Brick Company.
This early photo shows the gaps that used to exist between Liberal Arts Hall (center, with the tower) and Science & Engineering Hall to the left and Domestic Science Hall to the right
The cornerstone for these original three buildings was laid in a ceremony on June 12, 1902. Citizens watched Board of Managers President I.R. Mills begin the ceremony and the Rev. Dr. William Penhallegon of the First Presbyterian Church deliver the address, after which the Masonic fraternity of Illinois performed the ritual laying of the cornerstone, which included a copper box filled with mementos of the period. Mr. Millikin declined to include a photo of himself in the box and did not join the other guests and speakers on the platform, instead choosing to hover on the edges of the crowd.
The three buildings were connected on the remaining third and fourth levels, remodeled, and renamed Shilling Hall (after Charles Franklin Shilling, who was mayor of Decatur in 1903, when the University opened) in 1987. Mayor Shilling was part of the welcoming committee for President Theodore Roosevelt when he visited Decatur for Millikin’s dedication on June 4, 1903. His son, Franklin W. Shilling, was a member of the 91ӣƵ class of 1916, and established the Shilling Trust, which provided the funding for the remodel. On a sunny day, you can see where the connections between the buildings on the third and fourth floor were added, as the bricks are a slightly different color than the original.
U.S President Theodore Roosevelt giving Millikin's dedicatory address in 1903
On June 4, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Decatur while on a 66-day, 4,000 mile tour through 20 states. After arriving by train at Decatur's Wabash Depot, Roosevelt came to Millikin to deliver a at the University’s dedication. The dedication stand pictured in the photograph above was situated at the southeast corner of what is now called Shilling Hall.
Opening day for the University was September 15, 1903. The first Millikin students paid $10 per quarter and were charged additional special fees for labs and music classes. Because there were no University dormitories, students rented housing in town for $1.50 a month ($3.00 for a furnished room). Board cost approximately $8-$10 a month.
Campus Gates
An early photo of the main campus gates with their lanterns
Some of the early class gifts were various “campus gates,” serving as formal entrances to campus. Those in front of Shilling date from 1909/1910. Others existed at either end of Shilling (engineering/domestic science, and ), towards the SOM (), and on Oakland (). The Shilling gates, with their 1912 lanterns, are the only campus “gates” that remain.
Walk towards the Lincoln statue to the west.
"At 21, I Came to Illinois" Sculpture
The dedication of Fred Torrey's statue "At Twenty-One I Came to Illinois" in 1948
This statue, by sculptor Fred Torrey of Chicago, was dedicated on October 24, 1948. Torrey made models of two proposed versions of the statue, one with Lincoln standing, and another with him seated, which were displayed at the Decatur Public Library. The public voted then for their favorite, which ended up being the seated version you see today.
Abraham Lincoln joined his father in Illinois in 1830, not long after his 21st birthday, and helped him to build a cabin about 8 miles from where Millikin’s campus is today. For more Abraham Lincoln-related sites in Decatur, see the website.
Since its dedication in 1948, many Millikin students have had their photo taken with Mr. Lincoln.
Turn west (left when facing the clock tower) and walk along the path parallel to West Main Street until you can see #2 on the map, diagonally across the West Main St./Fairview Ave. intersection.
Alumni House (1305 W. Main Street)
Across the street, the yellow brick house that serves as the campus home for Alumni & Development was built in 1906 for Millikin National Bank Vice President J. M. Brownback, a widower with 2 children (Veer and Eloise, who both later attended Millikin's Academy). After the house was robbed twice in 2 weeks, Brownback decided not to accept after-hours bank deposits from people he met on the street.
Brownback's son Veer married (granddaughter of , founder of Mueller Manufacturing). Leda's brother and his wife Louise purchased the house from the Brownback estate in 1937.
In 1946, the Muellers sold the house to the Millikin Zeta Tau Alpha sorority chapter, which later expanded the house to the south in a renovation in 1964. In 1997, ZTA sold the house to Millikin, which remodeled the interior to serve as a departmental home for alumni and development.
Walk north on the sidewalk until you can see #8 on the map.
Perkinson Music Center (PMC)
Early Photo of the south front of Conservatory of Music
Originally known as the 91ӣƵ Conservatory of Music, this building opened in 1913. , the first director of Millikin’s School of Music, led the design of the facility, from the doorknobs and windows on the practice rooms, to the eelgrass soundproofing insulation placed in the walls. is named for him.
Due to the popularity of the School of Music, the original building required expansion and renovation, completed in 2000. C.D. and Pat Perkinson’s generous $8 million gift in support of this project (the largest single gift in University history at the time) is commemorated in the name of the building. Pat Perkinson was a member of the 91ӣƵ class of 1945.
February, 1913: an early photo of the new Conservatory of Music lobby.
Head north along the path to the east of Perkinson Music Center until you can see Gorin Hall (#11) and the University Commons (#12).
Gorin Hall
Gorin Library, construction nearly completed, in 1931. Shilling is the building on the right
During the Depression, Millikin benefitted from donations from the James Millikin estate, including the building of Gorin Library, decided on as a building that would benefit the most students and answer some concerns of the University's accrediting agency at the time.
Orville B. Gorin was a long-time friend and benefactor of 91ӣƵ, as well as a member of its Board of Managers and a vice-president at the Millikin National Bank; the building named for him served as Millikin’s first free-standing library from 1931-1978. Architects were Aschauer & Waggoner with Prof. J. M. White of the University of Illinois as consulting architect. Work was contracted to Cope & Fisher, with brick from the Decatur Brick Manufacturing Company and the large dedicatory stone tablet near the entrance prepared by the Illinois Cut Stone Company. Furniture and equipment were supplied by the American Library Bureau of Chicago. The new building was featured in a March 1932 issue of , which mentions rooms such as an exhibit room, women's faculty room, reading, seminar, and browsing rooms, work areas and offices, 7 decks of steel stacks, and an electric elevator in the stacks. It also mentions it may be eventually connected to the main buildings by a corridor (which obviously never happened).
Prior to Gorin’s construction, the University’s was located in rooms on the south side of the main corridor & east of the central stairway in Liberal Arts (Shilling) Hall. The first title added to Millikin’s library in 1903 was Charles Darwin’s “Animals and Plants Under Domestication.” Millikin's first librarian was Eugenia Allin, who, during her lengthy tenure at Millikin, participated in Gorin's design process.
Gorin Library's reading room
Millikin students studied in Gorin’s beautiful reading room for almost 50 years. This space later housed the Birks Museum, endowed by Florence and Jenna Birks (class of 1926 & 1922, respectively). The Birks sisters collected glassware, china, and porcelain on their travels throughout the world. It currently serves as office space for media and marketing.
Today, Gorin Hall serves as home to Millikin’s registrar, student success center, and media & marketing offices.
Turn to look at #12 on the map.
Staley Library / University Commons (The UC)
Staley Library under construction, 1977
Staley Library opened in 1978 as Millikin’s second free-standing library building. The A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company and the contributed over $2.1 million to the University for its construction. The Staley company founder, A.E. Staley, supported the University in his lifetime and his son, A.E. Staley, Jr. served for 20 years on Millikin’s Board of Trustees.
In 2016, construction began to renovate and expand Staley Library into the University Commons at Staley Library. This building, which opened in fall 2017, houses not only the library, but other student support services, the campus radio station (WJMU), campus dining, the Center for International Education, and the Oberhelman Leadership Center, named for Caterpillar CEO and 1975 alumnus Doug Oberhelman and his wife, Diane, who were major funders for the renovation.
Viewing the building from the west side, you can more clearly see where the original building (with its dramatic slanted roof) ended and the addition was added to the front.
Bronze Man
A snow-woman keeps Mr. Bronze Man company on a bench behind Shilling Hall
Mr. Big Bronze Man on Campus, or Mr. BB, was a 1998 gift of C.D. and Pat Perkinson (previously mentioned in connection with Perkinson Music Center). The sculpture by J. Seward Johnson is reading the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl, and has at least two twins- one at the Schaumburg, Illinois Township District Library, and another, known as “,” who sits on a bench outside the Grainger Engineering Library at University of Illinois in Urbana reading a book titled “The Future.” Like the Lincoln sculpture, Mr. B.B. is a popular site for student photos.
After spending 28 years on a bench behind Shilling Hall, he was moved to a bench in front of the UC during spring 2026 to help celebrate Millikin's 125th.
Walk along the west side of the University Commons until you see #1 on the map, to your left.
ADM-Scovill Tabor School of Business
Scovill Hall once served as Millikin's first science building
Scovill Hall was built in 1955 to house Millikin’s science programs with funds donated by Guy and Rose Scovill. The Scovills were generous contributors to the Decatur community, also lending their name to multiple area organizations and attractions such as the Scovill Zoo, Sculpture Park, and Oriental Garden.
After a renovation in 2005 (due in large part to a gift from Archer Daniels Midland/ADM), Scovill Hall became the home for Millikin's Tabor School of Business. The Tabor School is Millikin’s only “named” school, and is named in honor of Purvis F. Tabor, a local businessman and entrepreneur who became president of his own agribusiness (Tabor & Co.), and his wife, Roberta, a 1936 Millikin graduate. Mr. Tabor also served as a long-time member of the Millikin Board of Trustees.
Continue walking north towards #5 on the map (Leighty-Tabor Science Center).
Huss House
Look to your left (west) to see #36 across Fairview Avenue.
This image, from the 1931 Millikin yearbook, shows Huss House when it was occupied by the ZTA sorority
The house at 225 North Fairview Avenue was built for Millikin’s first president, Albert R. Taylor, and his wife Minerva, who lived there from 1918-1929. After Mr. Taylor’s death (in the house’s second floor bedroom), his widow moved to Kansas and the house was purchased by the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, who occupied it from 1930-1935.
After the bank foreclosed on the house in 1935, it was leased out until it was purchased, first by the VonZetti family, and then by the Huss family. Mr. Royce Huss was a 1937 Millikin graduate, and Mrs. Mickey Huss’ father, Rufus Bruner, was one of the carpenters who helped build the house. The University now uses it as a guest house and named it in honor of the Huss family.
Leighty-Tabor Science Center (LTSC)
Turn north to see #5 on the map.
Model of the Leighty-Tabor Science Center, prior to construction
Millikin’s science and nursing classes moved from Scovill Hall to LTSC in spring 2002. In addition to classrooms and labs, the building includes the Requarth Observatory (named for surgeon William Requarth, class of 1935), a greenhouse, and the William Andrew Kuhnke Museum (which includes one of the last, now extinct, passenger pigeons to be captured from the wild, nicknamed “Big Blue”).
Dr. John A. Leighty, class of 1931, was a director of research for Eli Lilly & Co. and helped develop the drug penicillin. He and his wife, Ula (class of 1933), donated several million dollars to LTSC’s construction, and endowed the Leighty Science Scholars program at Millikin. Roberta Morris Tabor, class of 1936 (wife of Purvis Tabor), gave a $6 million lead gift for the building.
In 2024, the School of Nursing moved out of LTSC and into a newly renovated Health Sciences Center at the corner of West Wood Street and Oakland Avenue.
Turn right (east), and walk along the south side of the Leighty-Tabor Science Center until you see #23 to your left (north).
Kirkland Fine Arts Center (KFAC)
Guests take a tour of Kirkland, prior to auditorium seat installation
The 2,000-seat center is named for Mrs. Eva M. Kirkland (class of 1915), and her husband Mr. E.T. Kirkland, who, in 1965, donated over half a million dollars to establish a campus fine arts center. Besides the auditorium, KFAC includes art galleries, studio spaces, and lecture and rehearsal spaces. Over the years, it has hosted many nationally and internationally famous performers, artists, authors, and speakers, as well as local talent from the Millikin Decatur Symphony Orchestra, School of Music, School of Art and Creative Media, and School of Theatre and Dance.
Kirkland’s gala opening performance in October 1970 was the Ballet Folklorico of Mexico. Another highlight of that inaugural season was violinist Itzhak Perlman.
One of Millikin's most popular performances each year is its Vespers choral program, which has been held each December since 1959.
Richard Hoffland directing the choir during a Vespers performance in 1974
Pilling Chapel
Walk a little further and look right to see #7 on the map, up a small hill from KFAC.
Construction of Pilling Chapel, 1996
Construction for Pilling, Millikin’s first free-standing chapel, began in 1996 and was completed in 1997. The chapel exists due to a gift of Trustee Emeritus “Bud” Pilling, and his wife Lauri and is used for faith services, meditation, recitals, performances, meetings, and weddings.
Over the years, several other spaces have served Millikin as a chapel, including what is now called Albert Taylor Theatre in Shilling Hall (which served as the site of student-required daily chapel services for many years), and , a space on Shilling Hall’s first floor, dedicated as a chapel in 1957 in honor of then recently-retired 91ӣƵ seventh president, J. Walter Malone.
Continue to walk east until you see a large green space with a small brick monument at its southwest corner; this is Miller Centennial Quad.
Miller Centennial Quad
Machinery/Mueller Hall was located on the site of the current quad
The campus quad, named for Dr. J. Roger Miller (Millikin’s 9th, and longest-serving, president) and his wife, Arlene, used to be home to one of Millikin’s first buildings, Machinery Hall (the brick monument at the southwest corner of the quad commemorates this building). In 1948, Machinery Hall was renamed Mueller Hall in honor of support to the University by the Mueller family and company. Shop work, forging, engineering, and pattern-making took place in this building for many years.
Mueller Hall last served as a classroom and rehearsal space for theatre and dance students, before being demolished to make way for the quad in 2006.
Early Millikin students at work in Machinery Hall
Barracks
The quad was also the site of military barracks during WW1 and WW2. Barracks first appeared on campus in 1918 as part of the SATC (Student Army Training Corps)- there were 5 (2-story) buildings, along with trenches and foxholes for training. These were torn down after the SATC disbanded in late 1918.
Six barracks next appeared on campus in 1942, to house troops stationed on campus in early 1943 to summer 1944 for flight training. Another was used as a . After the war, they turned into dorms for single men, and more were purchased and place around campus and used for housing for married men (4 apartments to a building). "Campus City" (and "Trailer City" which was also used for housing starting in 1946) opened in 1947. In 1950, 14 barracks were removed for construction of Scovill Science Hall, but 10 remained. In 1958 more were torn down for parking, and those left were vacated in 1962. These were used for storage until demolition in 1965.
Walk east along the path on the north side of the quad, until you see the stairs leading south towards a door in the center of the back of Shilling Hall. If you look up, you will see art glass windows, indicating the site of Albert Taylor Theatre inside Shilling.
Albert Taylor Theatre (ATT)
This early photo of Albert Taylor Theatre shows two private boxes, one on each side of the stage (removed in later remodels)
This theater was first called Assembly Hall, and on September 15, 1903, was the site of the opening ceremonies for the new James 91ӣƵ. James Millikin, sitting in his private box to the right of the stage, wiped away tears, stood, and bowed as the University’s new students shook the roof with their applause. Six years later, in 1909, Mr. Millikin’s funeral was held in this same hall.
In 1911, the second president to visit Millikin, William Howard Taft, gave a speech in the hall on his visit to Decatur. In 1939, the theatre was remodeled and dedicated to Millikin’s first president, Albert Reynolds Taylor.
Today, ATT serves as one of Millikin’s major performance venues, and is the home of Millikin’s campus urban legend, the ghost known as “Rail Girl.” Before each performance, production crew members leave out candy for Rail Girl in order to ensure no disruptions for their shows.
Look east, towards #11, The Center for Theatre and Dance (CTD).
Richards Treat University Center (RTUC) and the Center for Theatre & Dance (CTD)
University Center construction, 1959
Ground breaking for a University Center occurred in 1959. The Center replaced the Student Union Building (SUB), a converted 1943 World War 2-era Air Corps barracks that served as the Millikin campus student center from 1947-1960.
The UC was expanded in 1979, thanks to a donation from Nola Treat (class of 1907) and was renamed the Richards Treat University Center (RTUC) in honor of Ms. Treat and her longtime business partner Lenore Richards, with whom she operated the Richards Treat Cafeteria in Minneapolis from 1924-1957. During its dedication week, the menu at RTUC featured an item each day from the book “Quantity Cookery,” a cookbook written by the two women and used by many restaurants, hotels, and college and university cafeterias. Before her career in Minneapolis, Miss Treat was also the first director of the high school lunch program for Decatur Public Schools.
Richards Treat University Center in the 1980s (from the north side)
In 1984, the third president to visit Millikin, Ronald Reagan, participated in an area agribusiness forum in lower RTUC.
RTUC was demolished in 2018, and ground broken on the site to construct the new Center for Theatre and Dance, which opened in fall of 2020. If you don't have time to tour this beautiful showcase for the work of the School of Theatre and Dance in person, you can do it online or join us for a production in the Virginia Rogers Theatre!
Now, look to your left to see the David J. and Debra C. Rathje Athletic Center, #25 on the map.
Old Gym / Rathje Athletic Center
When it first opened, the Old Gym was simply known as the Gymnasium
What students eventually called the Old Gym was the new (and only) Gymnasium when it opened in February 1912, and students were excited to use it! Newspaper articles referred to it as "Millikin's Valentine." Before the Gymnasium was built, early indoor athletics took place in two small gymnasium rooms located below Assembly Hall (now Albert Taylor Theatre) in Liberal Arts Hall (now Shilling). Basketball was played in an upper room of the machine shop.
The first basketball game in the gym in 1912 between Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan drew a crowd of near 900 spectators, including Mrs. Millikin. Millikin's team was triumphant- 29-13. Over the years, the gym housed many of the Illinois Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association annual state basketball tournaments.
Within six years, in 1918, the gym and its 40 wash basins and two dozen showers was turned over to the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) to be used in the effort of training of men to fight in World War I. Other uses of the Old Gym over the years have been as a site for campus parties and dances, alumni reunions, carnivals and festivals, high school basketball tournaments, For Soul Only's Black Culture House, Theatre, the Ralph-Allan-Dorothy McClure Fitness/Wellness Center, swing space for offices during the Shilling Hall remodel, dance studios, and the theatre costume shop.
The Old Gym interior, with its raised track, in the 1910s
In fall 2022, the Old Gym was demolished in order to prepare the site for a new athletic space. In 2025, Millikin celebrated the ribbon-cutting dedication for the eagerly anticipated, recently completed Rathje Athletic Center. Major funding for the center was donated by David J. (class of 1958) and Debra C. Rathje and Jim Perryman (class of 1983) and the Perryman family.
Look north until you can see #18 on the map.
Athletic Fields
A Millikin football game in the late 1910s. Fred Long, Millikin's first African-American graduate, is pictured on the left (facing left)
In the early days, Millikin’s campus had lawn tennis, basketball and other small courts among the trees for outdoor games, but the “more vigorous sports” were saved for the large athletic field on the north side of campus. Today, that site is the location of the Frank M. Lindsay Track & Field, remodeled with a new score board, lighting, resurfaced track, and artificial turf in 2014. Mr. Lindsay was a long-time Decatur business leader and media owner.
The orientation of the original field ran east to west (which could have meant footballs ending up in the cemetery to the east). This was changed to a north-south orientation when the field was remodeled at the time of building Griswold. This involved demolishing a short street and alley with houses that ran along Eldorado.
Illinois’s first outdoor, night college football game was played on Millikin’s field in 1928. Artifical lights were rigged and a white ball was used in the game to make it more easily identifiable by both players and watchers. Millikin won over Lincoln 62-0.
Just a few of Millikin’s notable athletes include George Musso & George Corbett (Chicago Bears), Marcia Morey (Olympic swimmer), Fred Long (Negro National League baseball & HBCU football coach), Jeff Query (Green Bay Packers & Cincinnati Bengals), Jeff Monken (U.S. Military Academy football coach), and Danny Moeller (Pittsburgh Pirates & Washington Senators).
Walk further east, until you can see #4 on the map to your left.
Griswold Physical Education Center
Early Griswold, as seen from Oakland Avenue
Griswold Physical Education Center opened in 1970 and is named in honor of Jack Griswold (class of 1923), a sports enthusiast whose gift made the building possible. As a freshman, Mr. Griswold was part of the 1919 Millikin football team, a team that also included several eventual members of the (the team that later became the Chicago Bears).
The new facility allowed the Millikin basketball team to play home games on campus for the first time since the mid-1930s (we had been using basketball courts in the local high schools) and housed Millikin’s first campus pool, something students had asked for in the Old Gym, but never received until almost 60 years later.
On October 8, 1970, the first public event was held in Griswold- an exhibition basketball game between the Chicago Bulls and the Cincinnati Royals.
Look up the hill towards #31 on the map.
Aston Hall
Early photo of Aston Hall
When 91ӣƵ first opened in 1903, students had to live off-campus because there were no residence halls. Plans for Aston, the first campus dormitory, began in fall 1906 and its first residents moved in at the start of the fall 1907 semester. At first, the new dormitory was referred to simply as “Woman’s Hall,” but took on the name Aston Hall several years after it opened, in December 1909. Aston was Anna Millikin’s maiden name.
With the opening of Aston, Lucy Valentine was hired to be Millikin's Dean of Women, and her duties included supervising the dormitory and its occupants, and acting “as advisor to the young women of the entire College.”
Today Aston houses freshmen students.
Aston Hall lodgers posing on the porch, which was removed when Walker Hall was attached in 1960.
Some of Aston’s early rules included:
Other Dormitories
A student with her family on move-in day in the 1960s
Next to Aston, up the hill, both Walker (#45 on the map) and Blackburn (#32 on the map) dormitories opened as women's dorms. Walker was added in 1960, and is named after Ruth Walker, a former director of Millikin women's housing. Walker is currently home to Safety and Security and facilities operations. Blackburn opened in 1965 and was dedicated to , who taught French at Millikin for over 40 years. It is still a dorm and also houses textbook distribution each semester.
Millikin students in a Mills Hall dorm room, 1960s
Down the hill in the current green space north of Aston, Mills Hall opened in fall of 1960. This was the first residence hall on campus built for male students (originally just called Men's Hall). In spring 1967, it was re-named in honor of , a history professor and original 91ӣƵ faculty member that taught here for 40 years. In 1967, the New Men's Residence Hall opened across Oakland Street in what is now a green space. It was later named Hessler Hall, after chemistry professor and 6th Millikin President (1934-1944). Both have been demolished.
Also across Oakland (#6 on the map), Dolson Hall dormitory opened in fall 1996, and was called until spring 2007, when it was renamed Dolson Hall in honor of Jack C. Dolson, a Millikin supporter who ran a local billboard advertising company.
Thank-you for visiting!
The 91ӣƵ historical campus tour ends here. We hope you have enjoyed your visit to campus!