1953: Spence Hall

The building–dedicated as Spence Hall– was completed in 1953 and came in under budget thanks to: 1) the new highway being built between Old Fort and Ridgecrest and 2) the construction of Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville.

Earlier Montreat buildings had exhausted the supply of field stone in the vicinity. However, grading the road (US 70) from Old Fort to Ridgecrest exposed significant amounts of field stone. It was hauled to Montreat for 1/3 the cost that had been set aside for the materials.

The foundation of Memorial Mission Hospital was laid in the same way as the Historical Foundation–by pouring concrete into wooden frames. The company working on the hospital leased the framing the Historical Foundation at a moderate cost.