Shryock Auditorium

Constructed in 1917, the building was designed with strong Roman architectural influences in Neoclassicism by Chicago architect J.B. Dibelka. The auditorium was dedicated to the university's fifth president, Henry William Shryock who served the university from 1913 to 1935.  On a sad note, Henry Shryock passed away suddenly one day in his office inside Shryock Auditorium just prior to a convocation event.The shell and scroll motif surrounding the stage was created by an individually hand-cast method. The slight difference in every shell and scroll cast lend to the unique character of the interior design, indeed, to the grand atmosphere of the Auditorium itself. The majestic Reuter pipe organ that sits in the north balcony was commissioned in 1970, along with the remodeling of the Auditorium. Built by the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas, the instrument contains fifty stops with fifty-eight ranks of pipes, totaling more than 3,000 pipes. The organ weighs more than nine tons and took two years to build. Located on Old Campus of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Shryock Auditorium is one of the finest performing arts centers in the region.