Seabury Women's Residence Hall
Excerpt from Building A College: An Architectural History of Berea College[1]
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Louise Lovett Seabury Women's Residence Hall, 1957-1958 
Architects: Frederick R. Louis of Hortstern, Louis and Henry, Louisville, KY
Construction: Robert D. Short Construction Company, Lexington, KY
Ground Broken: April 25, 1957
Dedication: September 27, 1958
Cost: $155,000
Charles Ward Seabury, College Trustee (1928- 1963) and chairman of the Board's Finance Committee, gave funds to build this residence hall that was named for his wife, Louise Lovett Seabury. Architectural plans were started in 1956 but ground was not broken until April 25, 1957. Seabury Women's Residence Hall was constructed on the approximate site of Morningside Cottage, the second College Hospital. This ninety by forty feet rather severe colonial style common bond red brick building with a slate hip roof was built on the southeast edge of the ridge a bit below grade. It was built to house thirty-four women students.
Because it is below grade, a retaining wall was built some thirty feet north of the front entrance. Its first floor had seven rooms for fourteen women in addition to a resident director's apartment that occupied the east corner of that floor. On the second floor were ten rooms that opened into a connecting hallway, whereas the plan of the ground floor incorporated a lounge, laundry, kitchenette, and a flagstone terrace that extended from the south face of the building (Berea Citizen, April 25, 1957, ;October 2, 1958, 1). A simple fan lit pedimented entrance decorates Seabury's symmetrical design. A double door is placed in a low basket handle arch which is also fan lit. All windows are crowned by flat brick arches. However, the fan lit arched end windows, the roof and the cornice are constructed of wood. Mrs. Seabury assisted in the planning, color scheme and choices of furniture design. The furnishings and built-ins were then fabricated by the College Woodcraft Department. Seabury was dedicated on September 27, 1958; at the same time Governor Faubus of Arkansas closed public schools in Little Rock in an attempt to avoid desegration. Berea had integrated its campus almost a decade earlier. Today, Seabury Residence Hall sits neatly between the renovated James Hall and the Kettering Residences for Women.
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[1] Citation: Boyce, Robert Piper. Building A College: An Architectural History of Berea College. Self-published. Berea, Ky: Berea College Printing Services, 2006, p139-140.
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Works Cited
Boyce, Robert Piper. Building A College: An Architectural History of Berea College. Self-published. Berea, Ky: Berea College Printing Services, 2006, p139-140.
