Tunnels, Pools, and Ghosts: Exploring Space at St. Catherine University

Derham Hall Building Overview

Today Derham Hall is part of the larger St. Paul Campus today, part of two campuses in the Twin Cities. In 1095 the building was the entire campus, providing every singly function and duty of all the buildings on campus today. The building originally did just so with a library, residence hall, classrooms, offices and chapel inside ­­55,000 square feet.1 When walking in Derham hall today it is remarkable to think about all the functions that were performed for so many years in such a small building. Over the years with expansions to the campus these functions were removed and expanded throughout the years. For example in a space survey report from YEAR??? the function of each floor is described and it is clear that effects of the original multipurpose space are present. The building did not have a clear function; the first and second floors are administrative while the ground floor had a variety of uses from the post office to a dark room, newspaper and telephone switch gear.  The third floor housed forty-six students while the fourth floor was the living quarters of twenty-two sisters and all their facilities; as strange as this layout was it was fairly common for the university at the time many classrooms were next to bedrooms and even sister’s residences. 1Box 764 Energy Survey, 1982 CITE THIS FOR REAL PLEASE AND THANK YOU
 

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