LINFIELD’S FRERICHS HALL, TWO OF THEM
In 1947 a surplus theatre -- some say it was a “movie palace -- was moved from the Portland Air Base to the site now occupied by Murdock Hall at Linfield.
Music joined journalism and radio communications, speech and theatre in this new building. It had an auditorium with a stage and permanent seating. Linfield radio station KLIN-AM had its studios there, too.
First called the Fine Arts Building -- see photo from 1950 -- the facility was renamed Frerichs Hall in June 1957. Its namesake was Wilhelm "William" Reinhard Frerichs, who died at age 91 on Dec. 1, 1958.
Frerichs served McMinnville College/Linfield College in many in many capacities. He was professor of German (1912-1948), college librarian (for 10 years), editor of publications (1919-1948), acting president (1931-1932, between terms of President Leonard Riley and President Elam Anderson) and dean of Faculty (1938-1943). In 1948 he retired from Linfield after 36 years on the college’s faculty.
Frerichs Hall served as the fine arts building for 22 years until it burned down in December 1969.
In 1968 a new dorm was built across from Memorial Hall and Anderson Hall. It was called “New Dorm” It wasn’t the first “New Dorm” at Linfield. The 1946 and 1954 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbooks mention another “New Dorm” or other “New Dorms.”
In 1979 – a plaque inside the dorm says the dedication was Nov. 3, 1979 – New Dorm became Frerichs Hall (the dorm). That naming was apparently with approval of the Linfield College Board of Trustees.
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Thanks to Debbie Harmon Ferry of the Linfield President’s Office and Rich Schmidt, Linfield archivist, for assistance with this article.
Additional sources include the Oregon Statesman of Salem, Eugene Register-Guard, Oregon Journal of Portland, and Linfield Magazine.
The 1950 photo of Frerichs Hall (fine arts building) credited to Linfield Archives. Photos found online, posted by Frerichs family members, include Williams Frerichs in his Melrose Hall office and posing with others in front of Melrose. A photo portrait of him is from Find-A-Grave
Wildcatville took the exterior photo of Frerichs Hall (the dorm) on July 12, 2021. Credit for the photo taken July 13, 2021, of the plaque inside Frerichs Hall (the dorm) to Linfield Archives.
