De La Roche Hall as it looks today.

    De La Roche Hall rose out of the ashes from the fire that took Lynch Hall in 1933. St. Bonaventure decided to erect a new science building on the site of Lynch Hall. The first two floors of Lynch Hall remained although damaged by smoke and water. Using the remains of Lynch as a base, De La Roche was built and named in the memory of Fr. Joseph de La Roche d' Allion, OFM, the first white man to discover oil in North America (O'Leary 1). 

    Fr. Joseph de La Roche d' Allion, OFM was 17th century Franciscan missionary priest from France. He left the town of Dieppe, France on April 24, 1625 and landed in Quebec on June 19th of that same year (Dictionary). In 1626, Fr. d' Allion went to live with the Attiwandarons, also known as the Neutrals (Dictionary). They were known as the Neutrals because their land sat between Huron and Iroquois lands. Fr. d' Allion settled on the east bank of the Niagara River. The Hurons were afraid that he may set up trade for France with the Neutrals, so the Hurons convinced the tribe that Fr. d' Allion was a sorcerer which sent him fleeing for his life back to Huron territory (O'Leary 7). 

    In the summer of 1627, Fr. d' Allion joined a group of nomad Native Americans moving south along the course of the Genesee River to the territory of present day Cuba Lake (Dedication Booklet). He described a nearby petroleum spring that produced a "very good oil" used by the Native Americans (Dedication Booklet). His account makes him the first white man to come into contact with petroleum in North America. The name de La Roche means "of the rock" and petroleum means "oil of the rock" in Latin. The area of Cuba Lake where Fr. d' Allion made his discovery is not located far from St. Bonaventure, therefore providing the inspiration for the new science building in 1934.

    To construct De La Roche Hall, the two remaining floors of Lynch were gutted out and a third floor was added.  The exterior was built with red brick and a red Spanish tile roof was added. Bas-relief plaques were placed above the entrance on the front of the building. The plaque above the window has a cross at its center that represents Divine wisdom or science of religion. Above the cross is a pen representing the arts and below the cross is a compass representing the sciences ("Campus Architecture"). The plaque over the doorway depicts oil wells.

Bas-relief plaques above the main entrance of De La Roche.

    Over the back entrance of De La Roche is the white stone archway that existed over the entrance of the New College Building. The New College Building stood on the same site as De La Roche, before Lynch Hall was built. The inscription carved into the archway reads, "1900 St. Bonaventure College."

The original archway to the entrance of the New College Building, now over the back entrance of De La Roche. The inscription reads: "1900 St. Bonaventure College."

De La Roche circa 1950s.

    It was determined in the early 1970s that it was time for De La Roche to receive a facelift. Though the building's most recent incarnation was less than forty years old, it's crumbling exterior was in need of some obvious repairs.

De La Roche before exterior renovations.

    In June 1972, a three phase renovation process began. The first stage involved insulating the ceilings, installing new windows, and clearing up the moisture problem in the basement (McElroy). The second stage called for new electrical and mechanical systems and the third stage involved renovating the furnishings and equipment (McElroy). Metal window frames replaced the wooden frames and the wooden doors were replaced by metal doors. An elevator was also installed and an addition was placed on the west side of the building for storage (Hardy). All of the renovations were done by the Siegfried Construction Company of Buffalo. The renovations were completed in 1975 for approximately $1.3 million (Hardy). 

The right side of De La Roche after renovations.

The front left side of De La Roche after renovations.

    Today, math and science classes are still held in De La Roche. Its interior consists of classrooms and laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics, and other sciences. Department offices are also located in the basement. De La Roche maintains importance as the first of three classroom buildings on campus.