Marquette University is tearing down the old, Jesuit Residence building along Wisconsin Avenue this week.
It was built in 1916 as a residential hotel.
According to former university President Fr. Robert A. Wild, the building served as a student dormitory for a while before it began housing Marquette’s Jesuit priests in 1973.
The Jesuits moved into a new building in the fall of 2015, so the old hall has been vacant for almost a year.
“I’ve got a lot of memories in there,” Wild said of the old residence.
Wild, who now holds the honorary title of Chancellor, said he moved in to the old Jesuit residence hall for three years in 1975.
He returned in 1999, after he was named president.
“When we moved into the new building last year, that was 19 years later,” Wild said.
Lora Strigens, Marquette’s Vice President for Planning and Strategy, said the university is still looking into what will go in the old building’s place.
She said tearing it down was necessary, as its age had made it increasingly difficult to maintain in recent years.
“This project is really the next step in our overall, campus development plan,” Strigens said.
“I think we can all anticipate that, whatever is built here, it will be something benefiting our entire campus community,” she said.
