Merrifield Hall Reopens on the Campus of the University of North Dakota

(Photo by Shawna Schill/UND Today)

(UND Today) – The skies were gray and gloomy outside Merrifield Hall last week during an afternoon, but the mood inside the grand entrance was as bright as the building’s polished terrazzo floors and its pair of frosty-white chandeliers hanging high overhead.

As the Hawks in Harmony choir lined the double staircases and raised their voices in a jubilant overture for the Collegiate Gothic gem stepping into its second life — and soon, second century — the ribbon-cutting took on a definite party atmosphere.

More than 100 guests — some still shaking the rain off their umbrellas — squeezed in shoulder to shoulder to celebrate the grand reopening of one of the University’s most beloved and iconic landmarks.

“Merrifield Hall — as home to the departments of English, Philosophy & Ethics, Languages & Global Studies and the Honors Program — touches almost every on-campus student here at UND,” said Brad Rundquist, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. “And it also holds a very important place in the hearts of so many UND alumni. I heard from many who said, ‘I heard you’re going to renovate Merrifield Hall. Let’s be sure we keep this. Let’s be sure we protect that.’”