The Demolition of Brooks Hall: May 31

The wrecking ball has yet to begin knocking down Brooks Hall. During the past week, crews have been busy clearing the surrounding land, digging trenches for utilities and removing furnishings and asbestos from Brooks Hall itself.

PHOTO #1: Here's a shot of the back of Brooks Hall, taken from the top level of the adjacent 5th Street Parking Garage. Construction machines are busy taking metal fixtures removed from inside the building and placing them in large dumpsters for eventual removal.


PHOTO #2: Furniture removed from the rooms sits by a dumpster under the Brooks Arch.


PHOTO #3: Warning signs and tape and the presence of exhaust hose indicate there's asbestos abatement going on inside.


PHOTO #4: Minglewood Bowl, until very recently the site of pickup football and baseball games and other student events, is almost unrecognizable as the open field it was. It now serves as a space to store equipment, locate construction offices and provide parking space for workers.


PHOTO #5: Seventh Street in front of the ROTC Building, looking east toward Pat Neff Hall. It's readily visible that this is no longer a through street, as it has been bisected by the large trench being dug to hold utility pipes.


PHOTO #6: Another view of Minglewood Bowl, this time looking west from Waco Creek toward Kokernot and Brooks.


PHOTO #7: The current state of the remodeled Centennial Fountain, at the base of the bridge over Waco Creek on the Minglewood Bowl side. Some day soon, water will again flow here as it did when the fountain was first put into service in 1945.


PHOTO #8: Plaques at the front of the fountain. The one on the left dates from 1945; the one on the right is brand-new.

Photos by Randy Fiedler.