From These Roots

The 1960s were a transformational time for private colleges as the number of young people entering college grew and, therefore, the number of boarding students also grew. To accommodate this growing trend, the trustees and the administration at North Greenville Junior College approved a new men’s dorm to be built next to Hayes Gym. Before this, Lawton Hall was the main men’s dorm on campus and, when needed, there was overflow space in Neves Hall and White Hall. The new men’s dorm would provide space for 108 men and eliminate the need to use Neves and White Hall for living space.

The estimated cost of the new dorm was $304,000 and McCrory-Sumwalt Construction Company was awarded the building contract. The dorm would be three stories tall, 23,134 square feet, and constructed as a non-combustible brick-veneer building with cement block bar joists, and cement floors covered with vinyl tile. The dorm would be a motel-type building with enclosed stairwells and two-room suite-style units with a shared bathroom in between. The rooms would open onto an outside walkway that was designed to reduce noise volume. On the second floor, there would be a student lounge, an apartment for the Dean of Men, and a small vending machine room.

The groundbreaking for the new men’s dorm was held on September 17, 1969. Leland Browder, the Dean of Men, led the prayer for the dedication. Those who participated in the groundbreaking were Board of Trustees Chairman Robert H. Green, Dean of Student Affairs Dewey Calvert, Student Body President Regina Chilton, Missionary and alumnus Marion Moorhead, and President of the Student House Council Stan Craig. Construction was expected to be completed by the end of May 1970.

In 1972, it was announced that the dorm was to be named Bruce Hall after Charles V. Bruce, the longtime business manager of the school. Mr. Bruce came to North Greenville in 1949 to head the school’s commerce department and serve as the business manager. He served as the business manager for 22 years before becoming the Assistant to the President for a short time. He then returned to the business office where he stayed full-time until 1978 and then worked part-time until he fully retired in 1981 after 32 years of service. The official dedication of Bruce Hall took place on Founder’s Day, January 18, 1973.

The first renovations to Bruce Hall came as early as 1976. The ten bedrooms in the worst condition and their connecting bathrooms were stripped. The sheetrock was torn out and replaced with masonry, bookcases and desks were built in, new cabinets were installed, and new furniture replaced some of the old. In 1995, solar panels were installed on the roof of Bruce Hall, but these were eventually removed.

After years of neglect, significant renovations to Bruce Hall came over the summers of 2020 and 2021. With the help of financial gifts and volunteer professional labor, the building was repainted, given new vanities and plumbing fixtures, new electrical outlets and switches, new luxury vinyl flooring in the rooms, epoxy flooring in the bathrooms, new toilets, new exhaust fans, and new showerheads. Bruce Hall remains the largest housing facility on the campus of North Greenville.