Comer Hall is notable for its exterior features: white stone arches, large columns, balcony and detailed carvings of rams' heads surrounded by stalks of corn and wheat.
This year marks the 100th birthday for Comer Hall, a building that has been called "the cornerstone of agriculture" at Auburn University.
Since being built atop the highest point on Ag Hill in 1910, Comer Hall has been home to more departments and units than any other building except Samford Hall.
"President Charles Coleman Thach called the agricultural building more imposing than any other campus landmark," said Dwayne Cox, Archivist III with Special Collections and Archives and expert on the University.
The building, named for former Alabama governor Braxton Bragg Comer, currently houses the College of Agriculture, Department of Research Information and the Department of Agriculture Economic and Rural Sociology.
"A 1907 appropriation, coupled with private support, launched a building spree," Cox said. "Auburn employed historic architectural styles to lend the campus an air of venerability."
A fire in 1920 ruined the inside of Comer Hall, but left it standing tall.
A major renovation left the building ready to be used again only two years after the fire.
During the fire, "students were able to save some books, which they carefully carried down the stairs, and typewriters, which they threw out the windows," said Leigh Hinton, communications editor for the College of Agriculture. "Radio station WAPI, 'The Voice of Alabama,' was located on the third floor of Comer Hall. The station broadcast news, weather and educational materials related to agriculture and home economics."
The building has advanced along with history, as its inhabitants have found diverse purposes for it, adapting to the changes of the day.
"During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, part of the basement was equipped as a fallout shelter, complete with food, water and portable sanitation facilities," Hinton said.
Working in an 100-year-old building does have its negative sides, but not enough to overshadow the positives.
"Not everything works all the time, but I consider it a real privilege to work here," said Katie Jackson, agricultural communications editor, who has worked in Comer Hall for 22 years. "The plaster is old and the plumbing sometimes leaks, but nothing horrible."
While its history spans a century, if you're hoping to meet a ghost, Comer Hall is not the place to look.
"We've never heard a ghost, although it would be cool, if it was a friendly one of course," Jackson said.
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