History of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas

Dedicated Oct. 8, 1967, Smith Hall houses the religious studies department, faculty and administrative offices, classrooms, and the William J. Moore Library. It occupies the site of Myers Hall, which had housed the Department of Religion since 1907.

Myers was built on the site of the Rush farmhouse, purchased in 1901 by the Christian Women’s Board of Missions, Christian Church, to house the Kansas Bible Chair, offering courses in religious history and the Bible. The hall was also used as a social center and public lecture space.

In the 1960s funds were raised privately and from affiliated denominations for construction of a new building, and Myers was demolished.

This building was designed by architect Charles L. Marshall of Topeka and named for Irma I. Smith of Macksville, Kan., a major donor. To incorporate images from the university seal, Marshall designed the large stained-glass window “Burning Bush” and a courtyard for a large bronze statue of Moses. 

Smith Hall and the land it occupies were owned by the Christian Churches of Kansas and the Kansas Bible Chair until 1998, when the university bought them for $1.1 million.

The University of Kansas establishes the Department of Religious Studies, absorbing the KSR’s faculty, program, and shifting the KSR from an ecumenical school with private financing to a college department with state funding. KU leases the use of Smith Hall from the Disciples of Christ for $1 a year. The Kansas School of Religion is renamed the Friends of the Department of Religious Studies, and retasked as a support institution for the new department.

The development of the Moore Reading Room collection began in 1901, when the Kansas Bible Chair was established by the Kansas Christian Women’s Board of Missions and the women of the First Christian Church of Lawrence, to facilitate the study of the Bible at KU. A small farmhouse, on the present site of Smith Hall, housed the collection along with the Kansas Bible Chair. The mission of the Kansas Bible Chair gradually expanded to include instruction in the academic study of religions other than Christianity, and in 1921 was reorganized as the interdenominational Kansas School of Religion. Over the next fifty years, continuing acquisitions through donated funds and materials allowed the collection to grow. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, an annual endowment from the Episcopal Church, along with other donors, provided funding for book purchases.

Dr. William J. Moore, for whom the reading room is named, was appointed Dean of the Kansas School of Religion and the director of the Kansas Bible Chair in 1960. Under Dr. Moore’s direction, Smith Hall (built in 1967) was designed with the book collection in mind. In their history of the Kansas Bible Chair, The Bible on Mt. Oread, Dr. Moore and co-author Dwight F. Metzler remembered that “from the start of the planning [of Smith Hall] the library was considered the most essential element in the new building.” The integration of the impressive “Burning Bush” stained glass window, designed by Jacoby Studios in St. Louis and gifted by Mr. and Mrs. L. Allyn Laybourn, into the design of the reading room speaks to the importance of both the collection and the reading room’s role in providing scholars and students with a place for research and reflection. In 1977, the Kansas School of Religion was officially disbanded and reconstituted as the University of Kansas Department of Religious Studies. The William J. Moore Library was dedicated in honor of Dr. Moore a year later, on November 10, 1978.

From 1978 onward, the Moore Reading Room has continued to build, preserve, and provide access to the long-standing collection of the Kansas School of Religion, the only collection of its kind in the state of Kansas. In addition, the MRR is now home to the Religion in Kansas Project, an ambitious and ongoing archival endeavor to document the historical and contemporary role of religion in the lives of Kansans. Started by Dr. Timothy Miller in 2009, the Religion in Kansas Project partners with libraries, archives, museums, religious communities, and individuals throughout the state and greater Kansas City area to facilitate the digitization and preservation of resources documenting the diversity of religious tradition and experience in Kansas. It is a varied and highly used collection, accessed digitally by persons in over ten countries and averaging around seven thousand item views and five thousand item downloads a year.

Acquisitions for the Moore Reading Room are selected by members of the Religious Studies faculty and the Moore Reading Room archivist, purchased with funds from an endowment made possible by the generosity of private donors.

This filigreed bronze, evoking the image on the University seal, was planned to complement the stained-glass window “Burning Bush,” designed by Smith Hall architect Charles L. Marshall of Topeka.

The window was donated by Mr. and Mrs. L. Allyn Laybourn in memory of his parents, the Rev. Lemuel and Susan M. Laybourn, and executed by Jacoby Studios of St. Louis.

The 10-foot statue of the kneeling Moses is the gift of Corinne Wooten Miller of Tonganoxie in memory of her husband, Charles E. Miller. It is by art professor/sculptor Elden C. Teftt and was dedicated May 12, 1982.

Tefft and his assistants cast the statue, which weighs 1.5 tons, in KU’s foundry. Open webbing forms the shape of the kneeling figure, who is bearded and whose hands are joined in prayer.

The location for the statue had been chosen when plans were prepared for Smith Hall 17 years earlier, but a new test boring located an old cistern on the site, formerly a farm and then the site of Myers Hall, a Christian Church student center. A 15-foot shaft of concrete was installed as a foundation for the 4-foot base and the statue.

KU purchases Smith Hall from the Disciples of Christ, ending the lease agreement between the two institutions and making Smith Hall a permanent part of KU's campus.

2017 marks the 50th anniversary of Smith Hall, the continued home of the Department of Religious Studies and the site of the study of religion in the state of Kansas for 116 years. The Friends of the Department of Religious Studies continues to hold assets in its name, and is a support organization for the Department of Religious Studies. It provides a yearly grant to the department to support faculty research, teaching, the Moore Reading Room, graduate student scholarships, and much more.

In May 2022, the University of Kansas asked the Regents for $650,000 to demolish Smith Hall; the Regents approved this funding request. The minutes from the May 2022 Kansas Board of Regents meeting reflect that Smith Hall was deemed “obsolete” by KU, but there is no information about Smith Hall’s condition, the rationale for destroying it, or what the university would do with the space after demolition.

On June 27, 2023, the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places accepted and approved a proposed amendment to the University of Kansas East Historic District Kansas that identifies Smith Hall as a "contributing" building within that district. Smith Hall had previously been deemed "non-contributing" in the district because of its age at the time the district was formed (i.e., Smith Hall was not yet 50 years old). 

With this change, Smith Hall will receive the same careful consideration as other contributing buildings in KU's historic districts before demolition can occur. The adjustment may also make Smith Hall eligible for rehabilitation incentives reserved for historic properties.