Strong Hall to Rise Again

This spring, Rollins began construction on Strong Hall. Although the residence hall is being rebuilt from the ground up, it will retain a central courtyard and all of its original Spanish-Mediterranean beauty. This time around, the College is making every effort to ensure that Strong Hall will meet today’s sustainability standards while being fortified to last at least 100 years.

In its first life, the building, which opened in the fall of 1939, housed members of Gamma Phi Beta, Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Alpha Tau Omega, and, most recently, a handful of Living Learning Communities. The building’s courtyard has served as the site for Shakespeareana, a program of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays performed by faculty and students from 1950 to 1968.

Intended as a dormitory for women, the $60,000 hall was made possible by a gift from Hattie M. Strong, who sponsored numerous students pursuing their college education at Rollins. Strong became affectionately known as Mother Strong. In 1939, she wrote to the first women who were to call Strong Hall home: “My earnest hope is that into the life pattern of every one may be woven a symbolic meaning of its name and that the thread which makes up her life’s tapestry may represent her desire to be STRONG for everything which makes for happy, healthful, helpful, and efficient womanhood.”

For Strong Hall’s second incarnation, the facility will be split into two buildings and will be more welcoming to students and more in line with today’s sustainability standards. It will be able to accommodate 60 to 80 students in rooms configured as semi-suite residences. Each building will contain a large study and common area, with smaller nooks throughout for more intimate gatherings. In addition, it will include many sustainability features such as thermal pane windows with high-performance glaze for heat control, individual temperature controls in each room, occupancy sensors, low-water-use fixtures, low-VOC paint, energy metering, and AC provided by efficient chilled-water production.