Bishop John W. Branscomb Memorial Auditorium

On January 16, 1959, Bishop John W. Branscomb passed away. For many years, he had been a member of the Board of Trustees and the Methodist community in Lakeland, so the College looked for a way to memorialize him and his years of service to the community. Five years later, on January 17, 1964, the Bishop John W. Branscomb Memorial Auditorium was officially opened and held its first event. The building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright-protégé Nils Schweizer, is famous for its acoustics and has even been compared to Carnegie Hall because of its natural audio reverberation of approximately 1.3 seconds. The auditorium is often used for events serving both students and the public, ranging from assemblies and Convocation to the Festival of Fine Arts and Florida Lecture Series. Beyond the main auditorium, the building features the glassed-in Honeyman Pavilion, dedicated to the men of the Honeyman family by Eleanor Honeyman Miller and her husband John Raymond Miller III, and the Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall, dedicated to Anne MacGregor Jenkins, the wife of George Jenkins and mother of Dr. Carol Jenkins Barnett (Class of 1979). Also part of the building is the Anne MacGregor and George W. Jenkins Imperial Symphony Orchestra Office Suite, given by their daughter Julie Jenkins Fancelli. The Branscomb Memorial Auditorium is a fully integrated part of the Ludd M. Spivey Fine Arts Center, which began construction in 1963 and finished in 1971.

Anne MacGregor and George W. Jenkins Imperial Symphony Orchestra Office Suite

Return to Building History Page