UCA President Tom Courtway swings a golden sledgehammer to topple a wall during UCA’s ‘wall crashing’ event on June 9 while other UCA guests and dignitaries look on.
One-by-one, officials and dignitaries at the University of Central Arkansas took a swing at a wall in McCastlain Hall in today’s Wall Crashing event commemorating the start of renovations to the historic building.
Taking the first swing, Stacy Hurst, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, led the group of 10 that also included President Tom Courtway, UCA Board of Trustees Chair Brad Lacy and Nan Snow, member of the UCA Foundation Board of Directors, as well as others.
The dignitaries all donned hard hats, gloves and safety glasses as they swung golden sledgehammers to take down 10-foot high drywall panels.
This event commemorated the start of renovation projects at McCastlain Hall that will be funded by grants from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council (ANCRC). The ANCRC awarded an $800,000 grant in 2014 for the restoration and renovation of McCastlain’s East Commons and Fireplace Room. The university was recently granted $400,000 from the ANCRC to create a new, more accessible, grand hallway between McCastlain’s East Commons and the Baum Gallery.
Built in 1939 as the first stand-alone cafeteria on campus, McCastlain Hall is now one of eight buildings comprising UCA’s Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 18, 2013.
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