Wolf Tales Captures Alumni Memories of Harrelson Hall

To wrap up our series of posts about Harrelson Hall, we're sharing several short recordings captured with alumni as part of the SCRC's Wolf Tales program, our mobile oral history program to integrate more student voices to the archives.  We set up recording stations at events around campus to record the stories of alumni and students about life at NC State, and then add these recordings to the archives and share them online , so that future generations of researchers can learn about the history of NC State from the voices of those who lived it.

In the fall of 2015, the Wake County Alumni Network hosted a "Last Look at Harrelson" event to invite alumni into the building for one last farewell before demolition began.  We sat down with three alums who shared their different memories and experiences of Harrelson as students, ranging from the 1970s to the 2000s.  Their different stories show the range of feelings about the building, both positive and negative.

Click on any of the images below to view the full videos.

Danny Peele ('74) shared memories of showing off Harrelson Hall to visitors from his small town, taking classes in Harrelson, and acoustical problems and echoes in the classrooms.

Matt Williams ('14) spoke about his childhood memories of seeing Harrelson Hall while visiting NC State’s campus with his mother, an NC State alum, and later as a student at NC State, and the friendships he made in Harrelson through his involvement with student government.

Laurie Mitchell ('04) talked about taking classes in Harrelson Hall, the challenges and functional issues of the building (including windowless rooms and inconveniently located women’s restrooms), positive memories of professors who taught classes in Harrelson, and appreciating the mid century modern design of Harrelson and its place as an iconic building on campus.

You can learn more about the Wolf Tales program and view upcoming recording sessions at our website , and view more recordings of alumni and current students sharing their stories of life at NC State here .  If you have questions or would like to learn more about Wolf Tales, write to library_wolftales@ncsu.edu, and if you have questions about using any of our collections always feel free to contact us !