Every day, students rush in and out of the King Building, hurrying to and from class. Its drab interior clashes with its strange white façade. Students know the name well: many social science and humanities students will tell you how rarely they leave the neo-gothic maze of its classrooms and lecture halls.

The ground beneath King is saturated with history. Architect Minoru Yamasaki was commissioned to design both the current Conservatory building and the building that now bears the name of King.

The need for a building that would house classrooms for the social sciences and humanities arose after years of using Peters and Westervelt Hall — now the New Union Center for the Arts — as the primary non-science teaching spaces.

Construction took six years, beginning with the demolition of the old Conservatory building. When the College was founded, President Asa Mahan’s house stood on the very same lot.

The building itself is named for former College President Henry Churchill King, who was the college’s sixth president, and served from 1902 to 1927, the longest term of any College president.

Memorializing King in the new building’s name was “intended to honor King’s ideals and achievements 30 turbulent years after his death,” said late history professor Geoffrey Blodgett in his book Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History.

According to the archives of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine, King, who had himself attended Oberlin College and the Oberlin Theological Seminary, graduated in 1879 before doing graduate studies at Harvard and in Berlin, Germany. He then returned to Oberlin and began tutoring in the Preparatory Department. In the next few years, he held positions of associate professor of mathematics, professor of philosophy, college registrar and dean of the college.

King was elected as a replacement upon the sudden death of former President John Barrows. The election was not unanimous because of King’s definite theological ties, according to the Alumni archives. While he is not known as one of Oberlin’s most famous presidents, he is known as a theologian.

Despite these religious reservations, King was elected and took office in 1902. According to Blodgett, King was very persuasive, contracting a loyal following from students and faculty alike. He believed in a well-rounded education that would shape students into more complete human beings.

“He is remembered (somewhat nostalgically) as the last man to lead a harmonious community in Oberlin — town and gown, faculty and students,” said Blodgett.

During his presidency, the focus of the College as a whole shifted towards music, the fine arts, morals and religion. King’s philosophies seeped into the minds of students and faculty, leaving a profound mark upon the school.

Outside Oberlin, King is known for the “King-Crane Report,” a paper that he co-wrote with Charles R. Crane, a prominent member of the Democratic Party, stating what should be done with the land left over from the former Ottoman Empire. Commissioned by U.S. President Wilson, the report stated that Palestine was a primarily Arab land, an idea that would be considered later when Israel was established.

King wrote 19 books over the course of his life, many of them concerning sacred topics. Titles range from Rational Living to The Ethics of Jesus, Fundamental Questions to Seeing Life Whole.

Inside Oberlin, King conducted affairs in a way that showed his awareness of the world changing around him.

“King’s accomplishment for Oberlin was that of the conservative who holds fast to what is good in the past and that of the progressive who presses on to the high calling of the future,” said Donald M. Love in his book, Henry Churchill King of Oberlin.

According to Blodgett, King would be somewhat surprised by the turn that the College has taken towards a rather secular view of the world.

“How President King might react to the clatter of rival facts and opinions ricocheting through [King’s] classrooms is anybody’s guess,” said Blodgett.