Facilities Feature: Stephens Hall

Location: Intersection of University Avenue and College Avenue; Northeast corner of the MU campus.

Year Completed: 1936

Gross Square Feet: 5,916

Departments: The building has recently undergone extensive repairs and remodeling and is now a state-of-the-art, dedicated molecular research laboratory housing Biochemistry’s Membrane Research Group, which includes Gerald Hazelbauer, Chair of Biochemistry and Lin Randall, the Wurdack Chair in Biochemisty.

A look back: Erected at a cost of $44,000 and first named the Wildlife Conservation Building, this structure housed the Wildlife Unit, one of the very first such university units in the country. Under the leadership of Professor Rudolph Bennitt, and with the crucial support and encouragement of local businessman and sportsman E. Sydney Stephens (after whom the building was renamed), the unit and building became, respectively, a major focus and center of the nation’s conservation movement.