By Erik T. Masingill ’12 & Brett A. Mejia ’13
THE ROUNDUP
In 1928, construction crews built the first buildings on the new school campus in Central Phoenix: Brophy Hall, the Chapel and Romley Hall, to house classrooms and later a gym.
Brophy Hall, which at the time was named Regis Hall, also used to be where the counseling and administration offices were located.
By 1980 the original locker room, now room B210, housed the media center, which stored photos, slides and filmstrips, according to Mr. Tom Reithmann. The first Brophy Gym was the eastern half of the top floor of Brophy Hall.
The Rev. Anton Renna, S.J. taught English and Humanities in Brophy Hall for over 40 years and he set up a bookstore in his classroom called “Shylock’s Corner.”
“He was kind of the anchor for this building for many years,” said Dean Mr. Pat Higgins. “His class was always meticulous and he took great care of his class.”
As an alumnus of Brophy, English teacher Mr. Steve Smith ’96 remembers Brophy Hall as being the same as it was when he was a student.
“Other than the name and the fact that there were more offices, everything else is the exactly the same,” Mr. Smith said.
There is an entrance to the Brophy tower from Brophy Hall, and a path that connects Brophy to Romley Hall.
Today, Brophy Hall serves as the home of classrooms and the Dean’s office.
Eller and Piper set to make an impact on Brophy campus
Although Brophy is now 83 years old, there are two new buildings that have only recently begun their history on Brophy’s campus: Eller and Piper.
The Piper Center for Math and Science was built in 2005. The 52,000 square foot Scott and Laura Eller Fine Arts Center was built in 2003.
In 2000, Brophy wrote a $5 million check to support the creation of the Piper Center.
Piper host classrooms for mainly math and science classes while Eller host classrooms for English, fine arts and religion classes.
English teacher Mr. Tom Danforth ’78 has taught in Eller for 10 years now and said he has enjoyed his classroom every day.
“I think this is the nicest of all the buildings,” he said. “The classrooms over here are nicer. They’re carpeted; they’ve got the plugs on the floor.”
Before his emergence into an Eller classroom, Mr. Danforth taught in Brophy Hall for 16 years.
However, Mr. Danforth said that Eller has been nothing but a great classroom for him.
“It seems like the main action is right around here because the main entrance is right down there,” he said. “It is nice having such close access.”
Math teacher Mr. Doug Cox has taught in Piper for seven years.
Unlike Mr. Danforth, Mr. Cox contends that Piper contains the nicer classrooms.
“The classroom sizes are larger than some of the other buildings,” he said. “It helps with the learning environment, it helps having extra board space and extra class space to do group projects.”
Mr. Cox said since Piper is a newer building, students will be enticed to take classes there.
“It’s a little more exciting to be in an indoor building sometimes for students,” he said. “Maybe you guys are happy to come to the newer building and learn the material that we are trying to teach you guys.”
Harper Great Hall is the latest building addition to the Brophy campus. It was built a year after Piper in 2006.