Blome Building
Originally the Teacher Training School for Northern Arizona Normal School, the Blome Building opened in 1921. The building features a Neoclassical horizontal design with dramatic, fluted columns, a stylized pediment, and undecorated walls.
Blome shares these Greek Revival elements with Campbell Hall, which also features large unadorned columns at the entrance and walls in contrast to the more ornate buildings elsewhere on the north campus.
Blome is located on a small hill at the northeast corner of Northern Arizona University at the site of the first elementary school of Flagstaff stood in 1883. The president’s house, Herrington House, was originally located on this hill and was moved for the new building. In 1957, Blome became the Journalism Building.
Rudolph Harin Henrich Blome
Born in Germany, Rudolph Harin Henrich Blome immigrated to the United States in 1869 with his family. He became the director of the Teacher Training School at Tempe, which would later become Arizona State University but 1909 moved north to lead the Northern Arizona Normal School as the second president. He continued to teach while president until his dismissal in 1918 due to anti-German sentiment during World War II. As the building was renamed the Blome Building in 1983 in his honor and in recognition of its development under his tenure.
Today
Today, the Center for International Education resides in the building.
Bibliography
Cline, Platt. Mountain Campus: The Story of Northern Arizona University. Northland Press, 1983.
Drickamer, Lee C and Peter Runge. Northern Arizona University: Buildings as History. University of Arizona Press, 2011.
Authors
Emily Morgan, Louie’s Legacy Intern
Abby, Morgan, and Bri (HUM 195 Fall 2020)