Post-War Boom, 1946-1957

The economic calamity of the Great Depression and the lack of a male labor force during World War II disrupted campus expansion efforts. No new buildings were constructed until after World War II. The United States reveled in a post-war boom, and building projects flourished at College Misericordia from the mid-1940s until the end of the 1950s. 

Named in honor of Mother Catherine McGann, Ph.D., who was the first Academic Dean of College Misericordia (1924-1937), McGann Hall served as a dormitory until 1994. The buildings were demolished in 2000. 

Walsh Hall was added as an expansion to McAuley Hall in 1951 and dedicated in 1952. Walsh Memorial Auditorium (now Lemmond Theatre) was dedicated that same year. Mother Mary Teresa Walsh was a prime mover in the Sisters' efforts to buy and develop the land on which the University sits. 

Ground was broken for Regina Hall on October 19, 1955, where Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall sits today. It was designed as a club house and recreational space for students. The building was first occupied on September 3, 1956. Wilkes-Barre architect Carl Schmitt, Sr., designed the building.

Schmitt's firm also designed the Science Building. Construction began in 1956. Bishop Jerome D. Hannon blessed the building on May 7, 1957. The Home Economics Department occupied the first floor; the second and third floors housed laboratories for biology, physics, chemistry, and experimental psychology, as well as lecture halls, classrooms, and faculty offices. Prior to the construction of the Science Building, all of these departments had been housed in the Administration Building.