Architecture
Smith Hall consists of a three-story central block, built to house the Alabama Museum of Natural History, and adjoining two-story north and south wings. The north wing originally housed the Department of Biology with the south wing housing the Department of Geology. The Department of Geology currently occupies both wings. The architecture of Smith Hall mirrors the design and layout of several large natural history museums that were also built in the early years of the 20th century in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., only on a smaller scale.
The building is designed in a Classical Revival style known as Beaux-Arts. The exterior features an engaged colonnade of eight Ionic columns raised above a podium-like ground floor. The main entrance is at ground level through a pedimented stone doorway. Immediately inside the entrance is a center hall dominated by a sweeping staircase made of Alabama marble and supported by Alabama-manufactured iron. The staircase leads to the Grand Gallery Exhibition Hall on the second floor. The Grand Gallery is ringed by a colonnade of monumental Corinthian columns supporting an entablature and cornice. A barrel vaulted ceiling above the cornice contains skylights that provide the space with natural light.
Read more about this topic: Alabama Museum Of Natural History
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