The first cornerstone of TCU’s Fort Worth campus was laid in 1911 for Reed Hall. Originally the administration building, Reed is the oldest structure on campus. The facility has been home to university presidents and the business and registrar’s offices. It has also housed the post office, university bookstore, kitchen, dining room, classrooms and even the campus library.
 
Reed Hall was officially called the “Administration Building” until 1960 when adjacent M. E. Sadler Hall was constructed. With the opening of Sadler, the Administration Building was renamed Reed Hall for Dave C. Reed, an avid supporter and TCU Trustee.  
 
Reed Hall has undergone extensive renovations through the years. Originally, the building was a larger version of nearby Jarvis Hall – with six Ionic columns supporting a yellow gabled roof. In the 1960s, the columns were removed and aluminum and glass doors were added. At one point, the facility connected to the old Brown-Lupton Student Center and even housed the University’s Faculty Center – a dining room used for faculty lunches, afternoon teas, and occasional wedding receptions. The Faculty Center housed two historic collections – items such as desks and portraits that belonged to TCU’s founding Clark family and the Flore Rupe Mills collection of over 2,780 pieces of early American glass.

Many distinguished celebrities have walked Reed’s halls, including American poets Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost and Vachel Lindsay. Four-legged creatures were also a part of Reed’s past, too. With the help of pranksters, a cow once found its way to President Waits’ office in Reed, where it spent the night. For years, an old white dog slept in the basement and won every student election for years as a write-in candidate until the University expelled him from the building.

With the opening of the Campus Commons and demolition of the Student Center in 2008 and 2009, Reed was once again transformed. The modern-day Reed Hall is now a state-of-the-art teaching facility for the AddRan College of Liberal Arts.