By Rebecca Hargus
Photography by Doug Hodel
A Look Inside
A presidential presence on the Hardin-Simmons campus
Turning from Ambler Avenue in to the main entrance of Hardin-Simmons University, a sweeping driveway shadowed by mature Texas mesquites welcomes visitors and students alike to the home of the HSU president and his wife, Dr. Lanny and Carol Hall. The home projects a stately yet comfortable aura, befitting the Halls’ philosophy of hospitality. The large brick home with cedar shakes fits into the campus setting unobtrusively, yet, just like their respective homes, the students know it’s always there.
The Halls first moved into the home in 1994 and lived there until 2001, returning in 2009. They are the university’s 13th and 15th presidential family.
“We have lived here longer than anywhere else in our married life,” Carol said.
Their married life has included three president’s homes at three different institutions.
“We’re accustomed to this, and it suits us very nicely,” Lanny says.
Living in the midst of college students and academic buildings offers a different neighborhood experience, but it’s one the Halls find has more benefits than drawbacks.
“You know, I really haven’t found any challenges to living on campus,” Carol said. “Our experience has always been that people have been very kind and understanding. It’s a blessing to be on campus –it really is – to feel that you’re a part of the day to day activities.”
“You can’t beat the commute,” Lanny adds.
The presidential couple has encountered their share of funny happenings with college student life. During the Christmas season, the Halls often invite the student body over for a come-and-go hot chocolate get-together. One Christmas, about an hour after the party was over, and everyone had gone home, Lanny and Carol settled in their recliners to relax for the evening.
“In a little bit, we see this person peeking in the window,” Carol said. “So, we got up and went around, and it was a student who was there for the hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was already gone, but he thought it was still time – he just didn’t read his invitation well!”
Carol, with true presidential hospitality, found something to give the late visitor and probably eased his embarrassment while doing so.
Lanny and Carol regularly invite groups into their home – to roast s’mores over fires in the backyard during the winter or as a venue for various receptions and luncheons.
“Sometimes leadership and honors groups are very interactive,” Lanny said. “They spend a lot of time together, and they are very cohesive, and they will ask to have a class over here, so they use the Purple Room. It is more adept for them.”
The Purple Room, at the north end of the kitchen, was once used as advancement offices. In 1994, the room was converted into a game room, and it features HSU purple carpeting, an original Simmons sweater, an HSU branding iron, and Lanny’s and Carol’s freshman beanies.
When groups make use of the Purple Room, the Halls push the furniture back and make an area for everyone to sit comfortably.
“One fall, we had 13 dinners here for new students between Oct. 1 and Thanksgiving,” Lanny said.
“Our goal was to have every freshmen here, and we did it for about three years,” said Carol.
One of the most memorable of occasions took place when two students approached Dr. Hall and asked if they could cook dinner in the Hall’s kitchen for their professors in the sciences.
“I think they thought we would say no, but we said okay! So they brought all the food; they just wanted to use our kitchen, the stove and the pans,” he said.
“Yes,” Carol agreed, “they needed a good space to serve it.”
“It was an honor to us that they felt comfortable enough to ask,” said Lanny, reflecting on the occasion.
The original president’s home sits on Hickory Street and is now known as Compere Hall. Built in the early mid-1920s, by the late 1960s, the home could no longer keep up with the social role and demands that a president’s home should fill. So begins the story of the Lou Morton Ellis Center, or the current Hardin-Simmons University president’s home.
During a board meeting, Dr. Clyde Childers, a development officer, was reading the school’s Profile for Progress, and of the several projects and needs being proposed, a new president’s home was anything but a priority. The Van Ellises of Dallas, also members of the board, began passing notes back and forth to each other. Eventually, a note was passed to Childers, and according to the Abilene Reporter News, Childers announced, “Mr. and Mrs. Van Ellis have pledged $100,000 for a new president’s home.”
Construction began in 1970 and was finished in 1971. Dr. Elwin Skiles and his wife, Ruth, were the first presidential family to move into the home. Ruth began taking decorating classes in excited preparation for the new home.
Ruth, quoted in the Abilene Reporter News, sheds light on what she had in mind for the house: “I plan for the new house to be a home…I think the president’s home should be a haven. We hope it will be, even though it is large.”
Updates have been made inside the president’s home since Ruth had decorated it in the early 70s, but several pieces original to the first president’s home still find residence there. Among several notable furnishings is a chandelier donated by the Caldwell family, and in the distinguished foyer, a burl walnut secretary stands with an inscription describing the late Dr. James B. Simmons’ (for whom the college was named) sentiments about the piece. It reads, “Cost $250.00. Unwise—Better to Have Kept It to Endow This College. James B Simmons.”
University presidents living on campus have become more scarce in recent years.
“In ministry, people lived in parsonages, and that’s very rare now,” Lanny says. “I think it’s good for our size institution to have a presence on campus.”
“For the convenience of faculty and staff when we have receptions or luncheons,” Carol said, “it’s much simpler for people to attend if they can just walk over. They don’t have to travel across town.”
Lanny and his wife look at their residence as a ministry.
“We feel it’s a calling. I hope that we demonstrate the love of Christ in the way we interact with one another on a daily basis—if we can show hospitality from time to time,” he said.
Ruth Skiles’ hopes were realized and have continued, as the HSU president’s home has a tradition of being a haven to those who reside there as well as the students who come to visit.
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