Memories of Merrill: Science Center of the Past

Late one night in the early 2000s, a thesis student was working in a lab in the old Merrill Science Center. Suddenly, a bat came through the rafters and flew around the room. Panicked, the student called Amanda and Lisa Cross Professor of Chemistry Patricia O’Hara for help.

“[The student] said, ‘Professor O’Hara, I don’t know what to do. There’s a bat in the lab, and I got so scared I ran out, and I shut the door, when I realized my keys were inside,’” O’Hara recalled. With an experiment still running in the room, the two called the police to unlock the door. When the cops came in, they searched extensively for the bat. It was never found.

“Ten or 15 years later, when we were removing things to bring them over to the new science center, we found the desiccated remains of a bat,” O’Hara recalled. With “bats and sounds and moans,” she said, Merrill “really had a lot of character. A lot of people hated it. I didn’t.”

The bat was just one of many eccentricities of the Merrill Science Center, which was open for 50 years before the new science center took its place in 2018. When Merrill opened in 1968, it was one of the most modern science centers in the country, and its dedication attracted some of the foremost scientists of the time. Merrill remained a community hub of learning for decades and expanded to include the McGuire Life Sciences Building in 1996. But by the turn of the millennium, Merrill began to show its age, with decaying infrastructure that required frequent renovations. However, even after the building itself was scrapped, the memories it created remain. Here are some of those stories.

Before Merrill opened, Amherst’s STEM departments were spread across campus. Geology was in Charles Pratt Dormitory, chemistry in Moore Hall, biology in Webster Hall, and physics in Fayerweather Hall. When Merilll was dedicated in 1968, it was a true event — in addition to Amherst faculty, the keynote speaker was astronomer and writer Carl Sagan, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for his work. O’Hara would later describe the facility as “state of the art.”

In its first few decades, Merrill became a hub for students and faculties. The Merrill Beach, a patio at the building’s rear, offered panoramic views of the Holyoke Range and prime viewing space for games on the soccer fields nearby. “It was just kind of an asphalt surface, but students would sunbathe and hang out there and enjoy the first warm day of spring,” said Julian H. Gibbs 1946 Professor of Chemistry David Hansen. One of the quirkiest early features of Merrill was a wine bar, open to professors between shifts.

“Members would bring in their vermouth or their whiskey, and they would put it behind the counter so there wasn’t a bartender or anything, but you came in [and poured] a scotch for yourself,” O’Hara recalled.

As an epicenter for the Amherst community, Merrill also became a symbol of the changes in the college. In 1974, the college’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution allowing the admission of women into the college. A few years later, O’Hara arrived at Merrill as one of the college’s first female professors. It was an opportunity for adventure.

“When I started in ’83, the women never went into the bar. And then one day, my friend [Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics] Professor Penny Sackett and I decided to go in.” O’Hara said. “We went into the room, sat down, people were looking at us, and later I would hear people say, ‘I saw you sitting planning a rebellion!’”

By 2000, the old science center had been open for over 30 years and seen multiple renovations and expansions. The most notable expansion was the McGuire Life Sciences Building, which became home to the biology and neuroscience Departments. According to its dedication, during its heyday, “nearly half of Amherst students would take a class there.”

But the old science center was beginning to show signs of decay. An article in The Student from Nov. 12, 2008 reported that Merrill contained “outdated lecture halls, laboratories, and classroom spaces,” and an interviewed student described how their “thesis research was constantly stalled because the humidity was too high.” Others cited growing problems with the quality of life. Hansen described the building as a “fortress,” while students interviewed at the time called the building “dark, dreary, cold, and unfriendly.” In one incident, according to O’Hara, “it was really bitterly cold and some water pipes burst in one of the classrooms while the students were in there, and so the water was a gushing dam, down on the ceiling, which fell. The students were just completely covered with water.”

By the 2010s, it became clear that it was time for a change. In 2016, the “social dorms” on the east side of campus were torn down to make way for a new science center that would open two years later. According to an article by The Student from the time, the aim was “to provide a space where collaboration, both in and out of the classroom, can happen more naturally than Merrill.” It would also be more environmentally sustainable and have an “energy-efficient heating and cooling system,” as opposed to Merrill, which used one-third of the college’s electricity by the mid-2010s. To Hansen, “the biggest difference is the general-use spaces,” which are far more welcoming in the new building than in Merrill, which he described as “very, very forbidding.”

In 2026, the now-defunct Merrill and McGuire will be replaced by the new Student Center, and Valentine Hall will be replaced by a new dining commons, joining Merrill as a building of the past. Even as these buildings fade, however, the memories and experiences they generated remain.