It’s the end of the line for Ernie Pyle Hall. At least as a classroom building.

On July 25, the Media School will move out of Ernie Pyle Hall, marking an end to the building responsible for teaching a long line of journalism students. After renovations it will house a career center.

The building has a long line of history, and the closing of it is bittersweet for many teachers at the High School Journalism Institute who have attended classes and taught there.

JEFF GABBARD

When did you first come to Ernie Pyle Hall?

“I was a student here from 1981 until 1986.”

What is one of your favorite memories of the building?

“I remember one of the first years I was teaching at HSJI it was about 1989. I had to do a big lecture in the auditorium. I knew had to get people’s attention, and my lecture was talking about style and design. That’s when Zubaz were in, so I put on a pair of those and then I put on jeans over the top. So, I’m up there standing on the stage telling people how style is something that changes. I said, ‘You could be boring, or you can have style’ and I pulled down my pants with those Zubaz, and they all just went nuts.”

Why is Ernie Pyle Hall so important?

“This is where a lot of us grew up professionally,” Gabbard said. “I think for everybody this is where we really came into our own as journalists, and it’s coming home.”

MEREDITH BLEDSOE

When did you first come to Ernie Pyle Hall?

“I had classes here from 1992 to 1997, and I’ve been teaching at HSJI since 2003.”

What are your favorite memories of the building?

“This room was a room called The Pit. This was the photo area before all the technology came in, and we’re actually sitting on fake floor. There’s actually a full floor down that the steps would go down and along that wall was where a lot of the photo lecture classes were. The large room out here used to be the dark room, and it just completely changed when all the technology came in here, and it’s weird to walk in here and it’s not the pit.”

Why is Ernie Pyle Hall so important?

“I grew up here. Post high school, this was my home. For so many people and so many generations this really embodies what journalism meant to us.”

TONY WILLIS

When did you first come to Ernie Pyle Hall?

“My first time walking into Ernie Pyle Hall was when I was a student at the High School Journalism Institute in the summer of 2004 which then followed up with being an undergraduate here from 1975-1979 then coming back in the summer of 1979 to work as a floor counselor and in the past 36 years I been back at the High School Journalism Institute for 32 of those years.”

What are your favorite memories of the building?

“My sophomore was 1976, and it was the presidential election, and the auditorium–room 220–had a drop screen big projection TV that we would look at today and absolutely laugh at, but in 1976 we thought that was so cool because the image was so big. So, they opened the room to journalism majors to come in and watch the presidential debate between President Ford and Governor Carter, and we just thought was so cool that we got to see the debate on that big TV.”

Why is Ernie Pyle Hall so important?

“It’s special to me because of the amount of time that I’ve spent here but this building is special for who it’s named if you know you Ernie Pyle is and you know what he did in covering WWII, then it’s really a shame that the university has not been able to maintain some image of him.”