Home arrow News & Events arrow News0506 arrow Greenville College to Reopen Historic Bock Museum April 8th
Greenville College to Reopen Historic Bock Museum April 8th Print E-mail
GREENVILLE , ILL. –  The Richard W. Bock Sculpture Museum, located in the newly reconstructed Almira College House, will have a Grand Re-Opening on Saturday, April 8 th from 10 am to noon. The event is free, open to the public and will include a reception. The museum will remain open for tours until 4:00 p.m.  The second floor of the beautifully renovated home hosts the Period Almira College room, which pays tribute to the days students utilized the house as college and home.

Almira College House was constructed in 1855 and showcases the largest single collection of works by sculptor Richard W. Bock. The restoration process returned the house to its former grandeur. The Almira College House has served as the museum facility for the Richard W. Bock Sculpture Collection since 1975. Steeped in 19 th century tradition, the home was originally used as a classroom building for college instruction until Hogue Hall was constructed. The Bock collection consists of over 300 plaster and bronze sculptures of varying development of Bock's ideas and early conceptions for projects and commissions.

The collection also contains several architectural drawings by Frank Lloyd Wright, which have only been displayed at Greenville College. In the latter part of the 19th century, while working on the Schiller Theater for Louis Sullivan, Bock was introduced to Wright. Bock was then commissioned by Wright to do several sculptures for the architect's home in Oak Park, along with other works for several of Wright's architectural commissions. For a ten-year period beginning in 1903, Bock worked almost exclusively with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Greenville College is a four-year accredited Christian liberal arts school with more than 1,200 traditional undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree completion students.  Founded in 1892 and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, the college is located in Greenville, Ill., 45 miles east of St. Louis.