Carpenter Hall

Carpenter Hall. . This building, which is now named in honor of Paul S. Carpenter (1895-1949), Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Professor of Violin, began its life as the Geology Building. It was built in 1919 as part of a trio of buildings that also included an auditorium (now Holmberg Hall) and a library (now Jacobson Hall). At that time, the School of Fine Arts had not yet been designated a college. The School of Art took over the building in 1961. With the completion of the Fred Jones, Jr. Memorial Art Center in 1971. Carpenter Hall. as it was now called, began to be used by the School of Music. , Paul Simons Carpenter was born in Philadelphia in January 18, 1895. He graduated from Philadelphia's Combs Street Conservatory of Music in 1913, and came to the university in 1914 to teach violin. While at the university, he became an important leader of the School of Music, and of the fine arts as a whole. The College of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma was the first comprehensive fine arts college established in the Great Plains states west of the Mississippi. Except for his military service during World War I, Carpenter spent the rest of his life at the university. He began to conduct the University Symphony Orchestra in 1925, and in 1946, he became the director of the School of Music. In 1947 he was made dean of the College of Fine Arts, a role which he continued, along with directing the symphony and continuing to teach violin, until his death on January 4, 1949. His legacy lives on in the College of Fine Arts and its School of Music, both of which enjoy high national rankings.