Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears from the exterior as a castle with battlements.

Venue: Nichols Hall
Address: 113 Hale Library 1117 Mid-Campus Drive
Town: Kansas, US

Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears from the exterior as a castle with battlements. Its interior was destroyed by fire in 1968; the structure was rebuilt in 1985. The building currently houses the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication and the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. At the start of the 20th century, the two major needs of the Kansas State University campus were a livestock pavilion and a gymnasium. The president of the University, E. R. Nichols, lobbied hard for money for these projects, and the gymnasium was christened Nichols Hall in his honor after he retired in 1909. The initial funding and construction of Nichols Hall began during 1910 and was finished in 1911. The initial budget for the construction was $25,197. More money was allocated the following year to finish the building. Construction of the building included the use of state-of-the-art construction techniques. Nichols Hall was one of the first buildings in the United States to be built using continuously poured concrete flooring. The concrete was mixed using horses. The building provided a wrestling and basketball gymnasium and contained two swimming pools in the basement. Integration of swimming classes in 1920 ended the segregation of the pools between men and women. The building also housed facilities for physical education (now the Department of Kinesiology) and, until World War II, the Department of Military Science. Additionally, the building was used for commencement ceremonies. The second educational FM radio station in Kansas, KSDB-FM, began operations in the building in 1949. The initial broadcast power of the station was 10 watts, a level barely sufficient to cover the city of Manhattan. Due to crowding during basketball games, the university built Ahearn Fieldhouse in 1951 as a venue for basketball and other sporting events, as well as commencements. Some activities of the Music Depa