A piece of little-known BYU history is being torn down this summer.

The red-brick building at 931 E. 300 North, now home to the private school Meridian, has had ties to BYU since the 1970s when it was home to the BYU Law School for two years while the current building was under construction. Meridian is moving to a new location in Orem starting in July, and the old building will be torn down.

An open house on Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. will give alumni and the community a chance to say goodbye, according to Kris Crowther, public relations director for Meridian. The building will be open for people to reminisce and explore on their own, she said.

Yet, some history of that building, once a Catholic school called St. Francis, will live on at BYU. On the third floor of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, a reception area is called the Fish Bowl even though there is no glass there. It's the name students gave the reception area at St. Francis where three walls of windows surrounded the area.

"That name stuck, even when they moved to the new [J. Reuben Clark] building," said Carl Hawkins, a retired BYU professor and former dean of the law school.

In the summer of 1973, the J. Reuben Clark Law School was just getting started, and BYU leased St. Francis until the new building was finished.

"Everybody knew it was temporary," Hawkins said. "It was crowded and inconvenient, but everyone was in good humor about it."

Hawkins said a large classroom and the library were in the school gym. Students, borrowing from legal tradition, called the gym the "Great Hall" after legal chambers.

The cells where the nuns once lived while it was a Catholic school became the faculty offices.

"They were very small rooms," Hawkins said. "They kept the faculty close together."

Hawkins said the tight quarters helped the faculty become close.

Scott Cameron, a member of the charter class and now an associate dean, remembers the first year studying at St. Francis.

"It was quite close quarters for a law school," he said. "You were always seeing your classmates and professors in the hall."

It created a good atmosphere for teachers and students to be so close together, he said.

The law school moved into its current building at the end of the 1975 school year, said Jim Gordon, a professor in the law school.

The old Catholic school continued to have ties with BYU campus, even after the law school moved. Before the current Missionary Training Center was dedicated in 1976, several buildings on campus were used as Language Training Departments, said Todd Hollingsworth, a BYU staff member. St. Francis was used as the training department for Asian Speaking Missionaries in 1975, he said.

Another private school, Waterford, leased the building for a time, but decided there wasn't a market in Utah County and moved to Sandy, said Kris Crowther, public relations director for Meridian.

However, some BYU professors decided there was a need for a private school here, and they wanted to fill it. They founded Meridian school in 1989 with a goal to provide exceptional education at the same price as public education, Crowther said.

Meridian has always maintained close ties with BYU, Crowther said. Headmasters have let students living nearby use the building for activities in exchange for yard work, she said. There is also a volunteer program in place that puts BYU students in Provo classrooms, and Meridian has loved their BYU volunteers, she said.

The building is home to Meridian private school for a few more days. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns the 5.87-acre property valued by the county at $2.054 million but has not announced any plans for its use.

"This building is dying," Crowther said.

The roof leaks, it's hard to heat during the winter and things break all the time, she said.

Copyright Brigham Young University 22 May 2008