Anderson HallWe have a wonderful building to celebrate!

The Education Department has been housed all over campus, and most recently, we received a generous offer to move into the newly renovated Anderson Hall. This building has cultivated a greater sense of community and belonging to this department, along with resources and space to effectively learn how to teach the future leaders of the world.

Below are some pictures of students in Anderson Hall in all of the different settings and features the building has to offer.

Anderson Hall has a history at Gustavus.

In January 2017, Gustavus Adolphus College officially reopened the doors on a beloved building on Hello Walk. The past, current, and future use of Arthur H. Anderson Hall is an abiding example of the Gustavus community’ s dedication to good stewardship and the sustainability of our buildings, especially those named spaces which honor our legacy and history.

The Gustavus Library was housed in Old Main and Commerce Hall prior to the construction of a new library in 1948. The building, expertly built from Kasota stone, was dedicated as the first Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library in June of 1950. It was named to honor the memory and humanitarian efforts of Folke Bernadotte of Wisberg, a Swedish Diplomat who negotiated the release of 31,000 prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.

The building served our community well for the next 20+ years until, with the growth of the college, a new and larger library was needed. The current Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library was built and dedicated in 1972, at which time the previous library was renovated to accommodate the social science departments.

Board of Trustees member Arthur Helmer Anderson was a generous supporter and friend of the college. Anderson was a longtime Saint Cloud businessman and member of Salem Lutheran Church. In his professional life he was employed at J.C. Penney Co. and volunteered for the Saint Cloud Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts Advisory Board, the board for the Salvation Army, and served as president of the Saint Cloud Community Fund.

After touring the campus in 1976 with then-president Edward Lindell, Anderson decided to make a transformative gift. A single man with no children, he wished for his legacy to live on at Gustavus. The College named the newly-renovated Social Science Center in honor of his generosity. As the scheduled dedication of the building approached, Anderson expressed his interest to include Salem Lutheran Church in the name of the building because “the only good in him was because of the Church.”

Sadly, a few days before the dedication on October 17, 1976, Arthur suffered a heart attack and was unable to attend the ceremony. President Lindell, Olof Forshell (Swedish Council General), and the Rev. Herbert Chilstrom officiated at the ceremony.

Arthur Helmer Anderson passed shortly after the dedication.

As a tribute to Anderson, his service to college on the Board of Trustees, and his lasting generosity, we embrace the name of Anderson Hall today. Gratefully received, Anderson's transformative gift remains at the heart of our academic community and is bolstered by the commitment computer stores to this project it's most recent iteration.

Here is a link to a Gustavian Weekly article from the week Anderson.