Originally known as the Administration Building, Old Main and the adjacent Pioneer Hall were actually older than Alma College. Completed early in 1886, the buildings were intended for the Central Michigan Normal School and Business College, but that venture failed. In the autumn of the same year, Mr. Ammi W. Wright gave them to the Synod of Michigan of the United Presbyterian Church so it could establish Alma College. For the first 83 years of the college's history, Old Main served as the principal classroom building until it was destroyed by fire on March 10, 1969. Central Normal School A.D. 1886.