BY SUSAN DICKERSON
SALISBURY POST

You can’t walk into the building just yet, but if you get the guided tour, the scents of carpet glue and fresh paint assail the nostrils just as you enter.

It’s not an odor you would associate with a building more than a hundred years old. And certainly not with one that once served as maintenance headquarters.

Not too long ago, Ballard Hall ‘‘looked like what you might think a maintenance building might look, too,’’ says State Alexander, public relations director for Livingstone College.

But $1.7 million in grants and donations can do a lot. Combine that money and the wizardry of Salisbury architect Karen Alexander, and you’ve got a winning team – something Livingstone officials apparently recognized.

After New York businessman Stephen Ballard gave the funds in 1887, Livingstone students built Ballard Hall themselves. Students fired the bricks for the building in the school’s power plant kilns and helped lay the bricks from the ground up.

At one point, the college used the building as a public school. But even with such a rich history and a listing on national and state historical registries, Ballard’s uneven floors, crooked windows and other structural flaws made many architects advise the college to demolish the building.

But Livingstone officials didn’t listen. They searched for someone who would recognize Ballard Hall’s potential.

Enter Karen Alexander.

‘‘The challenge was great,’’ Alexander admitted. ‘‘But I think when you have a passion for keeping our history, and our buildings that embody all of our past culture, not only for the college but for the community, then the challenges appear much smaller. ... I never look at problems as obstacles. I look at them as opportunities.’’

The 11,000-square-foot building had found its savior.

A year later, Ballard Hall, soon to be Livingstone’s Student Services building, shows little evidence of change on the outside except for the stone deck on the back and the entry way.

But on the inside, it looks like a brand new building, even though Alexander and Wagoner Construction worked hard to save the building’s character. The wooden floors still creak, the floors still sag in places and a window on the third floor remains amazingly crooked.

Even though most of the floor had to be pulled up, Alexander found a close match and preserved some of the original. If you look closely, you can see the pock marks and stains on the old flooring.

‘‘We were very careful in the detailing of matching materials existing in the building, so there’s basically no transition,’’ she said. ‘‘A person visiting now really wouldn’t know what’s new and what’s old.’’

Some of the new items include an elevator and a ramp to meet federal requirements for handicapped persons, a middle stairway, lots of new lighting and ports for computer terminals. Another addition is the basement where students can gather to watch TV, talk or just hang out.

The basement used to be nothing more than a crawl space. Drop down the stairs now, and it’s a place where history meets the present: Holding up the new space are not only some new walls and columns, but several original brick walls laid by Livingstone students more than a hundred years ago. Together, they give the room an at-home basement feel.

Upstairs, some of the original light fixtures grace the hallway. The tall windows, though new, still sport various widths, keeping with the character of the building.

And that, expensive as the windows may have been, will in the long run cut down on the college’s heating and air conditioning bills, Alexander said.

‘‘I’m very proud of this college and administration for taking the high road and allowing for the budget to do this project in the manner that it should be done,’’ Karen Alexander said. ‘‘They looked at it not just for the short term but for the long term.’’

The new doesn’t mask the old. Alexander left some of the warts behind. You can see the newly laid deck behind the building. But as the newly laid brick meets the old, an observer can that the original building is not level.

‘‘Because of its history, that makes the building very unique,’’ Alexander said. ‘‘And when you’re doing restoration work, you’re not creating a new building, you’re going with the bones of that building and its structure.’’

The building isn’t open yet. After spending $1.7 million in grant money and gifts from individuals, the college still has no furniture for the building. Officials are in the process of raising funds.

‘‘There are all sorts of naming possibilities here,’’ said State Alexander. ‘‘So people can provide all kinds of funds for various items they want to give to use in the building.’’

To donate funds for furniture and other equipment, call Dr. Catrelia Hunter, the college’s director of advancement, at 797-1045.