Fisher Hall (Miami University) facts for kids
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Fisher Hall
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Formerly listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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An illustration of Fisher Hall from a 1940s postcard.
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 Location in Ohio
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| Location | Oxford, Ohio, United States |
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| Architect | James K. Wilson |
| Architectural style | Mixed |
| Demolished | 1979 |
| NRHP reference No. | 78002014 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | 1978 |
| Removed from NRHP | 1978 |
Fisher Hall was an important building at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It started as a college for women called Oxford Female College. Later, it became a special hospital (a sanitarium) and then Miami University bought it in 1925.
Over the years, Fisher Hall was used for many things. It was a dorm for first-year men, and briefly for women during World War II. It also served as a training school for the Navy and even a theater. The building was a dorm until 1958. After that, only the theater part was used. When a new performing arts center was built in 1968, Fisher Hall became a storage building.
Even though people tried to save it in the mid-1970s, the building was torn down in 1979. This was because fixing it up would cost the same as building something new. Today, Miami University's hotel, The Marcum, stands where Fisher Hall used to be. Fisher Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, but it was removed from the list that same year.
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Building Fisher Hall
Fisher Hall took four years to build and was finished in 1856. It had a simple, classic look with its windows and spacing, similar to Georgian architecture. The building had three floors and was shaped like the letter "T". The main part of the "T" (the east-west section) had a large porch with an entrance at each end.
In the center, there was a section that stuck out, which held a third-story ballroom. The building also had a full basement with a kitchen.
Fisher Hall was first built as an independent college building. The Oxford Female College was located a bit outside the town of Oxford, Ohio, and away from Miami University. The walls of the building were made of local, pale red bricks. The total size of Fisher Hall was about 46,286 to 61,384 square feet.
A Look Back at Fisher Hall's History
Fisher Hall officially opened on September 3, 1856, as the Oxford Female College. It was started by Reverend Dr. John Witherspoon Scott, a well-known educator. He was also the father-in-law of future President Benjamin Harrison. A judge named Ebenezer Lane from Cincinnati gave 44 acres of land and a lot of money to help build the college.
The building was designed by James K. Wilson, a founding member of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Fisher Hall was part of the women's college until 1882. Eric Johannesen, who wrote a book about college architecture, called Fisher Hall "one of the finest examples of institutional architecture" from that time in the Midwest.
In 1867, to help the school survive, its president, Robert D. Morris, combined it with another women's school called the Oxford Female Institute. Fisher Hall then became a place for students to live and study. After Morris passed away in 1882, the old college building was sold for $45,000. It was bought by George F. Cook, who used it as a special hospital (a sanitarium) until the mid-1920s.
Miami University bought Fisher Hall on August 15, 1925. They changed it into a residence hall for first-year men from 1926 to 1941. During World War II, it became a Naval training school from 1941 to 1944. The radio school trained 5,854 men and women, including women from the WAVES program. The U.S. Navy set up officer-training units across the country. This helped Miami University develop its current Navy ROTC program.
After the war, Fisher Hall was a women's residence hall from 1944 to 1945. Then it went back to being a men's residence hall until 1958. It was also used as a women's dorm through at least the 1960-1961 school year. Later, the first floor became the Miami University Theatre. This lasted until Miami's Center for Performing Arts was finished in 1968. With the new theater, Fisher Hall was then used for storage.
Even though people tried to save and fix up the building, it was eventually torn down. The cost to restore it was about the same as building something completely new.
Why Was It Called Fisher Hall?
Dr. Alfred H. Upham, who was the president of Miami University at the time, named the building after Judge Elam Fisher. Judge Fisher was a trustee and a former student of the university. The name Fisher Hall was a good fit because, when the building was the Oxford Female College, Elam Fisher was once asked to leave while visiting a young lady there!
The Mystery of Ronald Tammen's Disappearance
Ronald Tammen was a 19-year-old sophomore student at Miami University. He was studying in his room in Fisher Hall on April 19, 1953, between 7 and 9 p.m. He left his books open and other personal items behind. Ronald stepped outside but never came back to his room.
His roommate reported him missing the next day to campus officials, who then told the police. After a few months, the case became unsolved. There were a few ideas about what happened to Ronald. One idea was that he might have been harmed. Another was that he might have lost his memory. The third idea, which authorities consider most likely, is that he planned to leave campus and start a new life under a different name.
An article from April 1960 in the Dayton Daily News mentioned that Ronald's roommate, Chuck Findlay, still believed he was alive. They were "very, very close." Findlay's mother, who sometimes wrote to Tammen's parents in Maple Heights, said his parents never gave up hope. They felt he was "somewhere in the world today, and that someday he may come back to them."
The Marcum Center Today
The Marcum Center is a hotel and conference building that opened in September 1982. It was built on the same spot where Fisher Hall once stood. The building is named after Joseph T. Marcum, a Miami University former student who passed away in a car accident in 1973. Joseph L. Marcum, Joseph T.'s father, also a Miami alumnus, helped fund the center's construction in his son's memory.
