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For more than six decades, Funchess Hall has been a place where Auburn students learned to identify insects, study soils, grow plants, understand ecosystems and solve some of agriculture's most pressing problems. 

Now, as Funchess Hall faculty settle into the STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex on Ag Hill, the College of Agriculture invites the Auburn Family to visit Funchess one more time. 

The college will host Farewell to Funchess from 3-5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, during Auburn's Homecoming weekend. The free event will feature a final tour of the building, exhibits highlighting its history and accomplishments, light refreshments, and an opportunity for alumni and friends to share memories of a place that has been part of Auburn's academic life since 1961. 

“Farewell to Funchess is an opportunity for anyone with memories of Funchess Hall to walk its halls one more time,” said Valerie Rankin, engagement coordinator for the College of Agriculture. “Come see if the tiles lining the walls are quite the shade of green you remember, and catch up with old friends while you’re at it.” 

A building built for discovery

When Funchess Hall opened in 1961, Auburn was entering a new era of scientific research and agricultural education. 

Named for Marion J. Funchess — a longtime Auburn agricultural leader, dean of the college and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station — the building provided modern laboratory and instructional space at a time when Auburn's research enterprise was expanding rapidly. 

The building quickly became an important home to faculty and students from across agriculture and the sciences. Former Auburn President Jay Gogue studied horticulture at Auburn, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in Funchess Hall. Professor Emeritus Edzard van Santen advanced Auburn's turfgrass breeding work from his program in the building, particularly through development of cultivars suited to the heat of the Southeast. And Art Appel, now interim dean and director of the College of Agriculture and Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, spent the majority of his Auburn career in Funchess, where he built his research program in entomology.  

Through the Departments of Horticulture, Entomology & Plant Pathology, and Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences, countless Auburn students passed through Funchess on their way to careers that would take them across Alabama and around the world. 

A familiar part of Ag Hill

After 65 years, university planners recognized that laboratory and instructional needs have evolved beyond what Funchess can offer. University planning documents identified Funchess as outdated for modern research and teaching and called for its replacement. 

That replacement opened this summer. The STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex brings together researchers from the College of Agriculture and the College of Sciences & Mathematics. The $224 million complex represents the largest research construction project in Auburn's history. 

For those who studied or worked in Funchess, the building's legacy may be measured less in square feet and lab space than in memories. For many, those memories are punctuated by trips across College Street to the old Price’s Barbecue House. To round out the final farewell, Price’s — which closed in 2016 after 38 years of business — will be on site with tastes of its original Brunswick stew. 

“We are thrilled and grateful that the Price family was happy to be a part of our Farewell to Funchess Hall,” Rankin said. “It feels fitting to bring these two Auburn landmarks back together one more time.” 

Registration for Farewell to Funchess is encouraged. Be sure to check out the other homecoming events happening through the college here.