Michael Faraday is referred to as one of the greatest pioneers in the field of electricity. In 1963, a little more than 100 years after his death, NIU constructed the first of two buildings named in honor of his accomplishments.

Faraday was born in 1791. After he dropped out of school at the age of 13, he took up a job as a bookbinder. The job allowed him to spend much of his spare time reading, which is how he originally discovered his love for science.

Although Faraday had no formal scientific education, a chemist named Humphrey Davy gave him a job as his assistant. This spawned the beginning of Faraday’s early accomplishments in electromagnetism.

Faraday Hall, with three levels, is home to the physics and chemistry departments. It cost $2.75 million to construct and was chosen for the National College and Universities Architectural Exhibit in 1965.

“About three years before completion, the Ph.D. program for chemistry was approved, which caused our total number of students to almost quadruple in a very short time,” said Michael Spires, coordinator of recruitment and public relations for chemistry.

It caused the department to begin lobbying for another building a couple of years later.

In 1990, construction on Faraday West began. It was scheduled to open two years later, but because of construction conflicts, it didn’t open until April 18, 1996. The hall provides more classrooms, offices, laboratories and auditoriums to faculty and students.

“Faraday West is pretty well known for its construction conflicts. The people who started it went bankrupt two-thirds of the way through,” Spires said. “We finally began using it during the fall semester in 1996.”