Locating Slavery's Legacies @ University of Virginia

Memorial Structure

Named Building

Pro-Civil Rights

Holt, Hamilton

Holt Hall; A dormitory hall dedicated to Hamilton Holt

The Hamilton Holt Hall, planned in 1965 and constructed in 1966, was originally a men's dormitory, though is now a co-educational dormitory at Rollins College. The college initially intended to name the dorm after Harold Showalter. However, it was named in honor of the eighth president of Rollins, Hamilton Holt, a rather progressive president for the South who was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights proponent, and who inaugurated many of Rollins’s institutions. In 1967 it was converted to a co-educational dorm, and was renamed from its original name, the Independent Men's Dormitory. The hall was then later renovated in 2005 and 2006.

There were originally issues with the design of the dormitory itself, with the tenth president of Rollins College, Hugh McKean, refusing to approve the design until he thought it did not look like a cell block. Many suggestions were proposed to improve the design of the dorm, such as a public exhibit space for art to be displayed within the dorm, until it was eventually approved by President McKean. The dorm building’s Spanish Mediterranean style was designed by the architectural firm of Rogers, Lovelock and Fritz of Winter Park and is characterized by its red tile roof and arches at its entrance. The contracting firm Frank J. Rooney Inc. was also involved in the construction of the dorm. Although it was designed in a way to allow for future expansion, further wings were never constructed. It was demolished in summer of 2024 and replaced--alongside part of the tennis facility--with a 300-bed, 140,000 square foot residential village.

Holt, Hamilton

Co-educational dorm constructed in the Spanish Mediterranean style

Hamilton Holt Hall
Rollins College

McKean, Hugh

Tiedtke, John

Rodger, Lovelock, and Fritz Architects and Engineers

Frank J. Rooney Inc.

1966

1967

2006

2007

September 2024

1945-1976: Era of Civil Rights Movement and resistance to Civil Rights Movement

2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Rollins College

Rollins College; Winter Park, Florida

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5645004

Rollins College: A Centennial History

Altered - Renamed