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This familiar building on Roanoke College’s campus once served as a library.
Nestled in the center of Roanoke College’s Salem campus is a 142-year-old building that holds lasting significance to the college and to area history.
The structure, which resembles a chapel, is Bittle Memorial Hall. It was named for David Bittle, the first president of Roanoke College, a Lutheran-affiliated, liberal arts college founded in 1842.
Bittle Hall opened as a library in 1879, but before its debut, the plan was to name it Andrew Lewis Centennial Hall for General Andrew Lewis, a principal officer in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. Bittle proposed that the hall also house a museum, along with the library and a 1,500-seat assembly hall.
But Bittle died suddenly in 1876. The hall, instead, was named as a memorial to him, and plans for it to be as large in size as planned stalled due lack of funding, according to “Dear Old Roanoke,” a book about the college’s history.
Bittle Hall served as the library until 1962, when a new one was built on High Street. In what “Dear Old Roanoke” coins Operation Bookswitch, the college’s students transported the library’s entire 30,000-volume collection by hand from Bittle Hall to the new High Street location in about two hours.
Soon after the big switch, the college’s Office of Student Affairs moved into Bittle Hall. In 1982, those offices relocated to Alumni Gym on campus.
The Virginia Synod, one of the synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, then claimed Bittle Hall as its headquarters. The Synod remains there now, housing offices for Bishop Robert Humphrey and his staff.
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