Dunn Center Relocates to Historic Harris House on Baylor’s Campus

The Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies (CCMS) has a new home on Baylor's campus. Following exciting expansions in the School of Music, Harris House will now operate as an additional hub for the School, specifically for Church Music. 

The move brings together CCMS staff, Church Music faculty and student workers from their former locations throughout Waco Hall East. Baylor Church Music faculty now officing in Harris House include Drs. Bradley, Ingalls, Laube and Monteiro, as well as The Lev H. Prichard III Chair in the Study of Black Worship Dr. Stephen Newby, and Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Shannan Baker. Staff of the Dunn Center, including Chason Disheroon, Elizabeth Laube, and Meg Burleson, also now office at Harris House.

Harris House was built as a residential home in 1880. The building’s namesake, Judge Nathaniel Harris, purchased the home in 1914. Already located among a line of faculty homes, Judge Harris’s family home subsequently became a meeting space for Baylor students and faculty. The Harris family sold the home to Baylor in 1944, where it was converted to a home economics workshop. The building housed its first University department when Aerospace Studies and Air Force ROTC began operating from it in 1978. More recently, Harris House was home to University Ministries in the early 2000s and most recently to External Affairs and Institutional Events.

“The Church Music program is thrilled to begin a new chapter in the storied history of Harris House,” said Randall Bradley, D.M.A., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Church Music, professor of Church Music, and director of the Church Music Program and the Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies. “By joining the faculty, staff, and student offices into one location there is greater potential for research and collaborations that resource Baylor students and the local church.”

The Center hosted an Open House on Tuesday, October 17th, where campus partners and students were able to tour the house. Make plans to stop by and visit the new home of the Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies!