Written by: Zachery Simpkins (zas004@marietta.edu)
Any Marietta College student who has taken a communications course has walked into Mills Hall. It’s an old five story building with an industrial exterior that shows its age. When walking into the building it doesn’t look like a conventional academic building, but it has a certain charm. Maybe it’s the brick exterior, or the observatory on top of the building that reels students in to learn more about the old piece of history we use as a classroom.
The building wasn’t always used as the psychology and communication headquarters on campus. In fact, the building held a pivotal role during the Second World War. Marietta College Professor and photographer for the Marietta Times and News and Sentinel Art Smith was able to fill us in on the history of this academic building on Putnam Street.
Originally before WWII Mills Hall was owned by the Marietta Chair Company. As the name suggests, they made chairs for the community in and around Marietta as well as sofas and other furniture. When WWII started, it was all hands-on deck for the different factories within the United States, and the Marietta Chair Company was no exception. They changed their facilities to fit the productional needs of the U.S. Army. Instead of chairs, the company was building proximity fuses that were shipped over to Europe and the Pacific (Smith 2024).
The factory employed mainly women which was commonplace at this time. Many of the workers were right-handed since the factory lines were specifically made for those who were right-handed for efficiency. These proximity fuses were used to save lives in the war since the previous fuses would detonate too easily and could not be transported easily.
It’s hard to imagine the communication and psychology department being in a factory that builds munitions. Marietta has a long history that, when dug up, shows how impactful this small part of Ohio truly is. The story of Mills Hall reminds us to take a moment when we look at something we find interesting and truly understand its uniqueness.
Edited by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
