Mackay Hall, Side View, Park University, Missouri Poster

"Mackay Hall, Side View, Park University, Parkville, Missouri" by Catherine Sherman. Mackay Hall was named after Carroll County, Illinois banker Duncan Mackay who donated $25,000 in materials for the structure shortly before his death. The building was constructed using limestone mined on the campus grounds and built with the labor of students, who traded work for free tuition. Construction began in 1883 and was finished by 1893. Today the building is the main focal point of the campus and dominates the hillside, overlooking the town of Parkville. The building is a three-story structure with Richardsonian Romanesque, High Victorian Gothic, and Chateauesque style design elements. It measures about 137 feet by 84 feet. It features a clock tower with tall spire rising in stages from a semi-detached central block, textured wall surfaces, complex roofs and towers, wall dormers, asymmetrical bays, and polychromatic color scheme It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, The school, which was originally called Park College was founded in 1875 by John A. McAfee on land donated by George S. Park with its initial structure being the stone hotel Park owned on the bluff above the Missouri River. The original concept called for students to receive free tuition and board in exchange for working up to half day in the college's farm, electrical shop or printing plant. There were 17 students in the first school year and in the first graduation class there were five women. The first international student arrived in 1880 from Japan.