ENMU to Celebrate Administration Building's 90th Anniversary

ENMU Administration Building/Photo by Thomas Warren

Eastern New Mexico University is set to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the school’s historic Administration Building.

A celebration for the 90th anniversary of the Administration Building is planned for April 6, 2024. ENMU officials also say a celebration event is also being planned for around the same time as the 2024 homecoming, to allow alumni to celebrate the building. A calendar of events will be announced soon.

According to ENMU, the building opened on November 23, 1933, in Portales, New Mexico. At the time, 7,000 people came together to celebrate the opening of the building on what was then the Eastern New Mexico Junior College campus. Governor A.W. Hockenhull was the guest speaker for the event.

Construction on the building began in 1930, with the cornerstone being laid for the building on December 19, 1930, by the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Mexico.

The building’s opening date was unfortunate, as it coincided with the onset of the Great Depression. For this reason, the building sat unused for three years and deteriorated, with broken windows and missing doors. At the time, ENMU says even some livestock used the building as a shelter.

In 1933, $57,000 in funds were dedicated to the building’s rehabilitation, and the building reopened on November 23, 1933.

The building features several murals from the Work Projects Administration era. According to ENMU, in 1937, Eastern New Mexico Junior College applied to the WPA for a mural to be painted in the Administration Building. Once the project was approved, a mural to represent the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible was chosen.

Lloyd Moylan — a resident of Albuquerque and Taos — was selected as the artist. Moylan and his assistant scaled the walls of the building for five months, painting the mural. The scripture is painted on the pillars of the second floor. The WPA officials who inspected the mural told the school’s officials that it was “one of the most beautiful murals in any public building in the United States.”

For more information about ENMU, visit enmu.edu.