Pioneer Hall / Linfield University

Campus Drive  |  Built 1883 

When McMinnville College’s Board of Trustees accepted a 20-acre donation from pioneers
Samuel and Mahala Cozine, in 1881, they envisioned a bright future for the college. The Cozines’
generous gift inspired additional donations and turned the dream of a spacious new campus
into reality. Professor W. S. White designed the building in the form of a Greek cross and the
Trustees laid its cornerstone on the new college campus, May 31, 1882.

McMinnville founder William T. Newby produced 300,000 red bricks for the new building in
the kilns of his Ford Street plant. Bricklayers and local carpenters worked for more than a year
to construct this beautiful Italianate-style structure. The building rose from a locally quarried
basalt basement to four stories crowned by a cupola that once held the school’s Victory Bell.
Today the historic bell rests on display in nearby Walker Hall.

Known as the “main building” for decades, the structure received the name Pioneer Hall in 1928
after the completion of Melrose Hall. In the mid-1940s, structural problems threatened the
landmark with demolition. President Harry Dillin championed its preservation. In 1946, crews
renovated the building by installing steel beams to strengthen the floors, updating interiors for
safety, and adapting spaces for use by future generations.

A protected tree grove around Pioneer Hall features native Oregon species, most notably many
large Oregon white oak trees that create a peaceful space for students and visitors to stroll and
study. Over the years, Pioneer Hall has provided administration and faculty offices, classrooms,
a residence hall, a theater, printing press, dining hall, music studio and radio station. Located at
the center of the historic campus, and listed in the National Register of Historic Places since
1978, it remains the oldest and most prominent building at Linfield University.

For images of the the building, and further details, check out the link below:

Historic Resources Inventory Documentation