Founder's Hall

Founder's Hall is located at the center of the campus of Atlantic Union College, approximately 200' north of Flagg Street and 400' west of South Main Street in South Lancaster. Land surrounding the building is laid out in lawns, paths and planting beds. Founder's Hall is a two-and-one-half story structure of balloon-frame construction with decorative elements drawn from both the Victorian Gothic and Queen Anne styles. The structure has a basically rectangular plan with a projecting central pavilion on both its east and west elevations. The building rests on a high brick foundation and is enclosed by a steeply pitched hip roof with gables over both pavilions; all roofs terminate in open eaves with exposed rafters.

The exterior is covered with clapboards, some vertical tongue-and-groove boarding and decorative shingling (in the gables only). The facade (west elevation) is symmetrical; at its center is a one-bay deep pavilion. Set in front of the pavilion is an open porch. This porch sits on a base which is enclosed by lattice-work; rising from the base are chamfered posts which support a shed roof and a decorative gable at the porch's center. Decorative trim of the porch consists of a shingled railing surmounted by squat turned balusters, pierced brackets, an apron beneath the cornice and decorative panelling on the end gables ofthe shed roof (north and south).

At the first story the pavilion contains an entry with panelled doors and a five-pane transom, flanked on each side by one 4/4 window; these windows are set in unmoulded frames and have caps decorated by shallow brackets and a bank of saw-tooth trim. All windows of the building's first two stories have this decorative trim.and are made up of units containing 4/4 sash.

/Architect Barker & Nourse, Architects (Worcester, MA) Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Founder's Hall retains the integrity of its original design, setting, materials, workmanship, location and historical associations with the development of the private educational system of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, a system which has a current enrollment of 535,000 students. The building was constructed in the winter of 1883- 1884 under the direction of Elder Stephen N. Haskett, a founder of the Adventist Church, from plans prepared by the Worcester architectural firm of Barker and Nourse in 1883. It is now the oldest extant educational building in the Adventist system. Haskell financed the project by floating a stock issue of $75,000 among the 15,000 Adventists of the time.

Wood for the building's construction was cut in a local woodlot and much of the construction labor was donated without charge. Upon completion, Founder's Hall housed the South Lancaster Academy. Later, the building was used as the administration building of Lancaster Juniox, College and of its successor, the Atlantic union college. Subsequently, the building was in use as the College's Music Conservatory until 1975-1976 when it was restored and converted to the school's Religion center. Included in this last change of use was the opening of a museum room containing Adventist memorabilia and historical documents.

Also included in the building is the Miller Chapel, restored in 1975-1976, in which are exhibited oil portraits of William and Lucy Paulina Miller, leaders of the Millerite Movement of the 1830's and 1840's out of which Adventism grew, as painted by American primitive painter Horace Bundy. In addition, the chapel contains a rare 1843 Millerite Chart, the oak pulpit and rostrum furniture from Miller's church. Soon to be installed is a tracker organ make by John Steer.