More about Knobel Hall
Knobel Hall was built in 1895 as the Doane Academy, a college preparatory school that closed in 1927. A gift of William Howard Doane, the building is French Romanesque Revival style in Oakland pressed brick and Amherst stone.
A composer of thousands of church hymns and editor of the Baptist Hymnal, Doane also invented more than 100 devices for woodworking machinery and was a trustee of Denison from 1874 until 1915. He also presented Denison with two additional buildings (the original library and a gymnasium) and his daughters with three more (the present library, Higley Hall and Central Heating Plant).
In the 2024-2025 academic year, Denison broke ground on a sweeping renovation and expansion, and in 2025, Denison renamed the building Tina and Dale Knobel Hall. A new expansion that anchors and expands the facility, the Emily House King and Robert E. King Center for Data and Innovation, will house Denison's computer science and data analytics departments and serve as a campus-wide resource for courses in applied mathematics, digital humanities, financial economics, and data for political research
