Crounse Hall

Crounse Hall is home to the Grace Doherty Library, The Center for Teaching and Learning, Vahlkamp Theater, as well as classrooms and faculty offices. Centre’s Lincoln statue greets visitors just outside of Crounse Hall. The statue was dedicated in 2012 and was created by Louisville artist Ed Hamilton.

The Grace Doherty Library

Named for Grace Doherty of Catlettsburg, Ky., the library features comfortable study areas, computer stations, and resources. The Library also holds the College archives, including records, oral history interviews, photographs, historical papers, and other materials from Centre’s history. The lobby features works of art by students, professionals, and world renowned artists including glass artist Lino Tagliapietra.

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The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

CTL is located in the basement level and offers a variety of pedagogical supports for members of the campus community, including instructional design consultations and seminars, academic technology services, and assistance with equipment and room reservations. CTL manages and provides support for campus-wide systems, such as Moodle and Ensemble, and offers flexible hours for faculty, staff and students to explore, develop, and create assignments in our Mac-based Media Lab.

Learn More About CTL

Vahlkamp Theater

This 170-seat theater located in the basement level, accommodates guest lecturers, class film viewings, and mainstream movies.

Lincoln Statue

Centre’s Lincoln statue greets visitors just outside of Crounse. The statue was dedicated in 2012 and was created by Louisville artist Ed Hamilton.

The Story Behind the Name

When Old Main, Centre’s primary academic building from 1871 until 1964, had outlived its usefulness, the College conceived of an innovative replacement: a “hall of learning.” Books and research—the library—would be at the heart of the enterprise. Classrooms, where students would explore with their professors the great ideas to be found in books, would surround the library. At the top would be faculty offices.

The entire new building was known as Grace Doherty Library when it opened in 1967. In 1986, the building was renamed Crounse Academic Center in honor of major benefactors Eleanor and George P. Crounse Sr. In 2005, Crounse Hall, as it is now known, was significantly renovated and enlarged.

GEORGE P. CROUNSE SR. (1912-1999)

Innovative, impish, and wise, George P. Crounse Sr. made a fortune with his eponymously named river transportation company, then gave much of it away, usually anonymously. His 1976 gift of stock in the Crounse Corporation and the corporation’s subsequent repurchase of the stock in 1982 remain among the most significant events in Centre’s long history.

The original gift was valued at about $1.1 million—at a time when Centre’s endowment was only $7.5 million. When the closely held corporation repurchased the stock in 1982, the deal was worth more than $8.5 million and resulted in a dramatic increase in annual income for current expenses.

In a 1984 letter to then-president Richard L. Morrill, Crounse set out the history of the gift and his reasons for choosing Centre as the beneficiary. Because of an impending change in tax laws, he explained, the charitable foundation he established to support organizations mostly in Paducah was no longer feasible. His response was to dissolve it, giving all its assets—Crounse Corporation stock—to Centre. “I strongly believe gifts should be made close to home,” he wrote. “I also believe that no institution in Kentucky is more stable than Centre.”

Crounse’s first contact with Centre had come when he brought his older son on a college visit in the early 1960s. George Jr. wound up at Harvard, but Crounse was impressed with Centre’s commitment to the liberal arts and, in particular, by a chance meeting he had while on campus with then-president Thomas A. Spragens.

Crounse served on Centre’s board for 16 years between 1970 and 1987. After he stepped off the Centre board, Crounse continued to recruit worthy Paducah-area students to Centre with four-year scholarships, always anonymously. In 1990, he accepted an honorary degree from Centre, becoming at last an “alumnus” of the college he had transformed. He died in 1999, at 86, having continued to run his beloved company almost until the end. Eleanor died in 2000.

The Crounse connection continued at Centre, where George and Eleanor Crounse’s great-granddaughter India Allen ’17 majored in English.