Historic Hall Celebrates a New Beginning

By Camille DeMarco ’81, M’01, assistant director, University Marketing 

One of KU’s stalwart and traditional residence halls built in the 1960s received a facelift in 2025-2026. Improvements include 68,613 square feet of fully renovated and new space, ADA compliant elevators, central heating and air conditioning, new main entrances/vestibules, and a Golden Bear courtyard.

Located near South Dining Hall, Johnson is a traditional hall that accommodates 298 residences and is co-ed by east and west wings on each floor. On the ground floor, residents will benefit from a recreation room, gaming area, kitchen as well as other amenities. Laundry facilities and study lounges are conveniently located on each floor. In addition, there is a community assistant per wing, a director’s apartment, and 24-hour front desk.  

History and Legacy 

Johnson Hall is the seventh oldest residential facility established on south campus after Beck, Berks, Lehigh, Rothermel, Schuylkill, and of course, Old Main. Dietrich and Bonner soon followed as part of the original dormitories in that era. 

The cornerstone of Johnson Hall was unveiled on Alumni Day, May 28, 1966. The five-story $1.3 million dormitory construction housed 304 women as well as a dean's apartment, study and counselors’ rooms, a lobby and lounge, recreation and laundry areas, and a fallout shelter.  

The hall was named for Lillian E. Johnson, an 1889 Keystone State Normal School (KSNS) graduate, first critic teacher in the Model School and later preceptress (dean of women) for KSNS. She was described in the “Vidette” (student publication) June 1904, as having a "… genial personality, admirable tact,” and that these traits, as well as her "firm but prudent discipline have won the admiration and love of all the girls." 

Johnson was in great demand as a lecturer at teachers’ institutes and schools throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. In 1914, after 16 years at KSNS, she accepted a faculty position at Millersville State Normal School much to the regret of her students, colleagues, and the local community. She eventually became preceptress and teaching supervisor at Slippery Rock State Teachers College. 

Johnson came back to visit her alma mater many times before her death at age 90 in February 1957. At the time of her death, two of her four siblings survived Johnson. Emma Johnson Eisenberg, also a KSNS graduate (1892), and Mary Elise Johnson, who established a scholarship in her sister’s name. The Lillian E. Johnson Scholarship is offered to unmarried freshmen education majors who have at least a 3.5 GPA. 

Opening Celebration 

A ribbon cutting for the fall semester grand opening of Johnson Hall took place on August 6, 2026; building tours followed. (see photos).  

Students moved into the freshly painted, newly furnished rooms shortly after on August 22 … 60 remarkable years since the hall’s first residents lived there.  

Information gathered from The Keystone, The Normal Vidette, Kutztown Patriot, and Jason Graver ’92, M’18. 

A Building Full of Memories 

"Johnson Hall was one of my first introductions to KU and a college campus. As a high school senior, one of my best friends was a freshman at KU and it turns out, she lived in Johnson. One weekend in the fall, she invited me to visit because it had been some time since we've seen each other and I was actively looking at different colleges in the area. I still remember driving through campus for the first time and then pulling up alongside the building, just taking it all in. Fast forward through the weekend, I was introduced to two of her friends who I am still friends with to this day (21 years).  

"A little later in 2005, I applied and was accepted to KU. In July, I found myself at Connections (student orientation) hosted in Bonner Hall. I remember not liking it as much as Johnson. As luck would have it, I was assigned to Johnson my freshman year. I lived on the fourth floor. That first week was so fun, meeting people throughout the building, leaving notes on the door whiteboards, and just getting that whole first-year college experience.  

"As the year ended, I almost moved to Golden Bear Village South but decided to stay in Johnson since I had a girlfriend who lived on the third floor. I roomed with two buddies in one of those big rooms near the elevator.  

"Overall, it was such a great experience, being close to the dining hall, making lifelong friends, and enjoying the DMZ when it was warm outside."

Finally, Johnson Hall is even more fond in my memories because visiting there was one of, if not the last time I saw my friend Sarae before she tragically passed away.  

Thank you KU!"

Anthony Ruggiero ‘10 

"When I look back at the four-and-a-half years I spent at KU, three-and-a-half were living in Johnson Hall on the third floor. A few fond memories include: 

"Second semester sophomore year, the guys on the third floor would set off the fire alarm every Tuesday morning at 3 am when I had to get up early for an 8 am class. It became such a weekly event that I would keep ready a change of warm clothes, my ID, and my keys. 

"I used to leave my dorm room open on weekends as I didn't have a car to go home. The RA's would often comment when I would play a song repeatedly because I was homesick from time to time. 

"The best memory I have of Johnson is of the great roommates I had simply by happenstance, proving great things can come out of the unexpected.   

"Forever a Golden Bear!"

Audra Westcott Corson ‘96

"I lived in Johnson Hall second floor for three years. We had a very tight knit and delightful group made up of various majors. Our hall monitor called us ‘Johnson Babes’ and we refer to ourselves as such to this day. 

"One of the ‘Babes’ had a life size, cardboard figure of Herb Alpert (jazz trumpeter) who mysteriously appeared in all sorts of inappropriate places causing quite a ruckus. In the shower, closet, toilet, under the desk, at vending machines, dressed in lingerie, in someone's bed, and so on. He was the highlight of our all-women’s dorm escapades that we still laugh about when reuniting every few years. "

Carola S. Erb ‘72 

"I lived in Johnson in 1989-1990 and was an RA on the second floor. In 1989 there was no KU-sanctioned recycling program, and I am super proud to say that Johnson Hall was the first dorm to begin recycling. I covered a cardboard box in green construction paper and wrote something like 'Recycle Here' on the front. We placed the box right at the elevators in the lobby. When the box was full, one of the janitors would take the recyclables and replace the bag. She'd collect a bunch of bags in the janitor closet by the back entrance, take them to recycling and gave the proceeds to her daughter's softball team.  

"I was also the chairperson of the Johnson Hall Earth Day Committee that year. I was involved with other students interested in having a big shin dig to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Earth Day and convinced the hall staff to have a table at the event. We had perfect weather, a ton of vendors, live music, crafts, a roaming juggler too. Our committee had so much fun prepping and our artsy members created a really cool banner out of a bedsheet. We convinced a local nursery to donate pine seedlings as a giveaway. I wanted 500 seedlings, but one committee member insisted that was too many; we ended up with only 250. We ran out pretty quickly and I held it over his head for decades! 

"Johnson Hall is also where I met my now ex-husband – he's the one who only wanted 250 seedlings! He encouraged me to go to law school, and I have an awesome career as a solo practitioner. We have four amazing daughters, all of whom either graduated from or are current students at Kutztown. So big thanks to Johnson Hall for being the springboard to an amazing life and a new generation of KU alumni!"

Carrie L. Donald, Esq. ‘91

"There’s a long-standing story that the entrance to Johnson Hall was accidentally built on the wrong side. One alumna I spoke with, whose father was an administrator at KU in the 1970s, is convinced the architects had the blueprints turned around, which is why the entrance faces the ‘wrong’ direction – towards South Dining Hall. According to her, it was originally supposed to face the ‘tri-county’ residence halls (Berks, Schuylkill, Lehigh). 

My theory: Early campus maps show additional residence halls were planned around Johnson, forming a courtyard. Those plans changed and Bonner Hall ended up looking very different from what was originally intended. That shift may explain why Johnson’s entrance feels like it faces the wrong way today. 

Note: Andre Reed lived on the first floor of Johnson during the 1983–1984 academic year. 

Jason Graver ’92, M’18