Rowand-Johnson Hall/Morgan Hall

We encourage patrons to park in the South ten Hoor Parking Deck, which may be accessed from Stadium Drive or Campus Drive.

Rowand-Johnson Hall is home to the Department of Theatre and Dance. It is also used for English and Anthropology classes. The building, which was constructed in 1955, has classrooms, practice rooms, studios, and offices for the Department of Theatre and Dance.

Rowand-Johnson also houses two theatres. The Marian Gallaway Theatre, named after the director of theatre from 1948 to 1973, is a 305-seat proscenium theatre that hosts four to six main stage productions each year. The Allen Bales Theatre is a thrust-stage, 150-seat facility used for studio productions. Seating charts for both can be found at the Department of Theatre and Dance’s web site.

The School of Music resided in the facility until the construction of Moody Music Building in 1988. In the fall of 1989 the ‘Music and Speech Building’ was renamed Rowand-Johnson Hall in honor of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Wilbur Rowand who was a long-time chair of the Music Department. Dr. Johnson served as chair of the Department of Speech until his retirement in 1970. It was soon after his retirement that the Department of Speech was reorganized into three departments: Communicative Disorders, Speech Communication, and Theater and Dance. The Communicative Disorders and Speech Communication Departments moved out of the building, but the Department of Theatre and Dance stayed.

Morgan Hall, constructed in 1911, is home to the Department of English, including the freshman English and creative writing programs. Fiction and poetry readings, as well as dance performances, are held in Morgan Hall Auditorium which re-opened in 2000 after a $1 million renovation, the first since its construction.

The building has English offices on the ground floor and a computer lab on the second. The English Computer Lab (ECL), the oldest and largest of the College of Arts and Sciences computer facilities is networked to all other Arts and Sciences computer labs, provides two computer classrooms for online classes as well as general computer access for all English faculty and students.

Morgan Hall is named for John Tyler Morgan, a U.S. Senator from 1876 to 1907 who in 1882 helped obtain indemnity from the Federal government for the destruction of the campus in 1865. It was built in the Beaux-Arts style out of Missouri yellow brick with stone trim and was designed to be a compliment to Smith Hall, which was built along with B.B. Comer around 1907 to 1910. Morgan Hall housed the School of Law on the third floor from 1911 until the construction of Farrah Hall in 1927.