“In the morning, we might be a breakfast stop, just as we were in 1925 … in the evening. We might be a place for you to go see a really cool band, just as we were in 1925.”

Originally opened in June of that year, the Union has served a wide variety of functions in its time on campus, from housing women’s dormitories to putting on concerts and shows to providing basic services to students and faculty members.

The building serves as a symbol of MSU, and it now provides students and faculty members with dining areas, convenience and clothing stores and a bowling alley. The Union also provides an escape from the stresses of the day, Cooper said.

“We’re a society that likes our third places these days — a (coffee shop) or that place that isn’t work or home,” she said.

Laying the foundation
The structure students see every day wasn’t built overnight. The history of the Union stretches back to 1905 when university officials recognized the need for such a building on campus, according to the University Archives & Historical Collections.

The graduating class of 1915 eventually put those plans into action, pledging to donate money toward a building fund if alumni would cover the rest of the costs. Until that time, the now-defunct College Hall was converted into a temporary union building. The structure’s use was short-lived, as it collapsed in August 1917 during a nearby campus concert.

The need for a union building grew even more, yet fundraising progress remained stagnant until 1919, when an alumni meeting collected $36,000 toward the project. Following that collection, the building’s original fundraising goal was upped from $150,000 to $500,000.

An April 1920 student and faculty pledge drive collected an additional $50,000 in three days, and architectural firm Pond and Pond then was hired to design the building, according to the MSU Archives.

In an effort to save costs and jump-start the project, male students and faculty members eventually were brought on board in teams of up to 50 to dig the building’s foundation in what became known as Excavation Week. The effort — which ran from Nov. 19-24, 1923 — was the first of its kind in the country and led to national media attention.

“It was the entire campus coming together for one purpose,” said Portia Vescio, a public services archivist with the university. “The Union was one of the first big projects on campus where the alumni got involved as well.”

The crews worked four-and-a-half hours at a time for one week, moving 3,000 cubic yards of dirt in the process.

With the foundation in place, the building’s cornerstone was laid June 14, 1924, and nearly one year later, the M.A.C. Memorial Union officially opened, with a revised cost of $600,000.

Through the years
Although portions of the interior remained unfinished, the new building contained a beauty parlor, a barbershop and a centralized kitchen, as well as a two-story assembly hall on the second floor.

That hall was used for dining, dancing and meetings and, at one time, could seat 955 people.

The second floor also had a men’s smoking room and a screened-in sitting room, as well as guest rooms. In all, six single bedrooms and two double bedrooms — each with private baths — were available to alumni and friends on the second and third floors. With the addition of the east and northeast wings in later years, the Union could sleep 74 people.

One floor above that, patrons had access to private dining rooms and a male-only billiards room.

Vescio said the lodging areas, along with the building’s other features, changed interactions at the school.

“Back when the Union was built, the social life on campus was a lot different,” she said. “Having one place where all the students could gather was just another sense of community for campus.”

The now-200,000 square-foot structure also once was the home to every major campus publication, including the Red Cedar Log and The State News, as well as the student bookstore, which later moved to the International Center.

In 1936, the Union came under university ownership for the first time, after the Alumni Association defaulted on repayment to the state of $300,000 worth of first-mortgage bonds, which they sold to cover building expenses. In total, the association never was able to repay more than $25,000.

Ten years later, the structure was in need of renovations, and yet another addition — this one to the south wing — was finished in 1949, at a cost of $2.36 million. In 1955, the university changed the building’s name to the MSU Union, and in 1980, the last major exterior alterations were made at the facility, making the building handicap accessible.

Onward and upward
The current edition of the Union features a food court with two restaurants, an MSU Dairy Store branch, a Biggby Coffee location and two convenience stores, as well as a post office and a Michigan State University Federal Credit Union office.

The building also houses the University Activities Board, the Student Alumni Foundation, the Women’s Resource Center and the Multicultural Center.

More changes still are in store for the building in the coming years. The Union will undergo a series of renovations as part of the MSU Union Master Plan, Cooper said.

Specifically, public areas on the first floor and office space on the second and third floors will be the main focus of those efforts, according to the plans.

“One of the things we would like to do with the renovations is to honor the MSU tradition of the Union but upgrade our facilities so that it is useful to today’s students,” Cooper said.

Echo Prafke-Marson, a biosystems engineering sophomore, said although the building is helpful because of its amenities, she would welcome the changes to the structure.

“That’d be great. … They’re helping things out, making things better,” she said. “I think this is a great place — it’s really neat all the things they can do here.”