Dan Wykoff, Covenant College's vice president for finance and operations, reached for the View-Master resting on his office coffee table and put in some film.
"This is pretty cool," he said. "I got this on eBay."
After clicking through the film, he found the picture he was looking for - an image of what Carter Hall looked like before 1980. The ongoing restoration of the building - a $19.4 million project scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2017 - is meant to restore the hall to its 1928 form when it was the luxurious Lookout Mountain Hotel.
The Great Depression forced the hotel billed as the "Castle in the Clouds" to be closed decades ago and it was subsequently abandoned. When Covenant College moved to Lookout Mountain, Ga., in 1964, it bought the building and made it the central point of the campus. Now Carter Hall serves as a residence hall, dining hall, mailroom and bookstore, and houses several administration offices.
"If there's a heart of campus, that's the heart of campus," Wykoff said.
The goal of construction is to bring back the building's original stucco and wood exterior. The work, which began over the summer, is being done in four phases. Phase one will be completed in December, college spokeswoman Jen Allen said.
Because Carter Hall serves so many purposes and is so vital to the campus, it couldn't be closed all at once for construction, Wykoff said. That's why the work had to be sectioned off into four parts. The interior won't change much when construction is done, but a porch on the north side of the building that was closed off will be reopened to the air.
So far, the construction is on schedule for the 2017 completion date and there haven't been any complications. Of the $19.4 million needed for construction, $10.7 million has been collected so far, Allen said.
"We're launching a campaign for that this academic year," Allen said of the remaining $8.7 million to be raised.
Wykoff added that fundraising will be an important and constant part of his job. He also said the college partnered with SunTrust to help with some of its debt.
"It's still a big gap," Wykoff said. "But we're trusting in the Lord's providence to provide for us."
Contact staff writer Evan Hoopfer at ehoopfer@timesfreepress.com, @EvanHoopfer on Twitter or 423-757-6731.
Earlier report: