Cooper Hall
university building in Sterling, Kansas
Cooper Hall, known also as Cooper Memorial College Building, located on N. Broadway Ave. in Sterling, Kansas, was built in 1887. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
It was the main building of Cooper Memorial College. It is a three-story irregularly shaped building on an approximately 120 by 50 feet (37 m × 15 m) plan. It has a tower which rises about 75 feet (23 m).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cooper Hall” is university building in Sterling, Kansas. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cooper, Hall and university, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “university building in Sterling, Kansas” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48844629. Authority coordinates are 38.222, -98.207. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887 and 1974.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cooper Hall”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cooper Hall primary sources, Cooper Hall archive and Cooper research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cooper Hall”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cooper Hall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.