GI history nugget: Chapman Building completed

In 1948, the U.S. Congress appropriated $975,000 for construction of an earthquake-proof three-story building for the fledgling Geophysical Institute. On Emeritus Day, July 1, 1949, newly chosen UA President Terris Moore, President Emeritus Charles Bunnell and Stuart Seaton, the Geophysical Institute’s director, laid the cornerstone for what is now known as the Chapman Building. When the building was completed in 1950, it was considered the finest research facility of its kind in the United States.

In 1951, President Moore began assembling a first-rate research staff for the newly created Geophysical Institute. He asked professor Sydney Chapman to be the advisory scientific director. Under Chapman, the GI became the core of the university’s research and graduate programs.

The 19,000-square-foot building boasts an observation deck of an additional 6,000 square feet. The penthouse of the building has six removable hatches in the roof, designed to aid in astronomical research, and once had an astrodome housing a 12-inch reflecting telescope. In June 1994, the dome and telescope were donated to the Fairbanks Astronomical Unit’s astronomy group. The FAU group subsequently relocated the astrodome and equipment to Murphy Dome.

Today, the building houses the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, classrooms and computer lab spaces.