Student Life Buildings and Grounds

McKenna Auditorium and Student Fountain shortly after its construction, 1954.

By the beginning of 1950, Claremont Men’s College’s campus expansion was making progress with the completion of four dormitories and a central classroom and administration building. There were still many campus needs, however, and the students, faculty, and trustees all agreed that an auditorium and student lounge should be the next project. After a series of delays and augmented design plans, Donald McKenna enlisted his family to finance a 600-seat facility to be named in honor of his father, A.G. McKenna, with the Mothers’ Club supporting the construction of an attached student lounge. Designed by Allison and Rible, construction commenced in November 1952 and the $225,000 facility was dedicated on Parents’ Day, October 31, 1953, as McKenna Auditorium and Student Fountain. With its state-of-the-art soda fountain, student lounge, and convenient auditorium, the facility added a further note of solidity to the young campus identity. The fountain portion would soon become known as the Hub, the persistent identity that migrated from its original location in the temporary Santa Ana units. In 1966, the McKenna Student Fountain underwent extensive renovations again designed by Allison and Rible, adding 2,600 square feet of usable space to the refurbished snack bar and auditorium lobby and an additional 2,150 square feet outside the building for patio and court. The interior was separated into three areas: a soda fountain and coffee bar, a luncheon room with restaurant-style seating, and a student lounge. Air-conditioning and a new sound system for music were also added, and the total cost of renovations were in excess of $200,000. The new building was renamed McKenna Student Union. In 1986, the Student Union was renamed the Emett Student Center in honor of CMC Life Trustee Robert L. Emett '50. The building underwent a major renovation in 2013 and is now also home to the Soll Center for Student Opportunity, which provides students with opportunities for internships and post-graduate positions; offers mentoring, counseling, and advising; and provides resources for scholar communities. Over the years, McKenna Auditorium has remained an important venue for large events, such as Convocation, and the Student Center and the Hub continues to serve as an important gathering place for meals and recreation for CMC students.

Collins Dining Hall in 1962.

With Story House becoming increasingly inadequate for a growing student body, the need for a free-standing dining hall emerged as an important priority as early as 1952. In 1955, CMC trustee and parent Whitley Collins P’51, pledged $25,000 toward a new dining hall, a gift he increased to $100,000 the following year, provided that the sum be matched from other sources. With the gift matched, Owers Construction Company began work in late 1956 on the Allison and Rible-designed dining facility. Collins Hall opened to students in the fall of 1957, seated 300, and offered magnificent views of Mt. San Antonio and the San Gabriel Mountains through its north window wall. An east dining room was added in 1958 to accommodate students from Harvey Mudd College, followed by a kitchen remodel and west dining room addition in 1964 to accommodate students from Pitzer College. Collins Hall underwent extensive renovation and expansion through the 1993-94 academic year, including the addition of a new kitchen. 

A view looking north at CMC's student bookstore, April 1960.

A student bookstore to be operated the Associated Students was constructed between McKenna Auditorium and Wohlford Hall in 1958. The 1,300 square-foot cement block building, costing $30,000, was financed by a loan from endowment to be paid by earnings from the store. The bookstore primarily served CMC, Scripps College, and Harvey Mudd College students selling textbooks, classroom supplies, stationary, and general books and periodicals. With the opening of Huntley Bookstore in 1969, which served the entire Claremont Colleges community, the CMC Bookstore was phased out through the 1971-72 academic year. From 1972 to 1977, the building housed the consortium’s Education Development Center, and was used as CMC’s Student Services Center during the 1977-78 school year. The building was razed to make room for the incoming Heggblade Student Center.

Students at the Story House mailroom, 1991.

On February 17, 1969, Story House was severely damaged by a fire. Due to the excessive cost to restore the building and bring it up to code, the original building was razed in the summer of 1969. Story House was rebuilt in 1970 in a much more modest facility at its current location and expanded and renovated in 1994. It currently houses the Facilities & Campus Services department and the student mailroom.

A view of Heggblade Center from the North Quad.

Built in 1979, the Frank W. Heggblade Center is a 5,000-square foot facility sitting on the former site of the CMC bookstore. It was built to house offices for the Dean of Students, student activities, and alumni affairs. The building is named in honor of Frank W. Heggblade, longtime business partner of Joseph Marguleas, father of CMC Trustee Howard Marguleas P’87. Frank Heggblade and Joseph Marguleas were co-founders of the Heggblade-Marguleas Company in 1934, an agricultural company that later became a subsidiary of Tenneco, Inc. Heggblade Center currently houses the Dean of Students Office, the Student Activities Office, and the CARE Center.

The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum in 1992.

In 1968, Donald McKenna wrote a memorandum recommending “a student-faculty club or athenaeum,” with the idea of creating a venue where students, faculty, and visiting guests could gather for refreshments and wide-ranging discussion. While classroom lectures and examinations stood at the center of CMC’s educational program, the proposed Athenaeum program would provide a third axis of educational approach: one promoting learning and intellectual inquiry for their own sakes in a loosely structed atmosphere. McKenna announced that he was prepared to donate $700,000 toward the endowment of the operating expenses of the proposed Athenaeum and an ad-hoc committee on the Athenaeum led by English professor John Dunbar and including then-administrative assistant to President Benson, Jack Stark, was created to elaborate on the ideas initially sketched out in Donald McKenna’s memo. The Athenaeum would accommodate up to two hundred guests and would be located between Collins and Seaman Halls. The building would also include an apartment for a resident director and additional apartments for visiting scholars and lecturers. In addition to evening dinner-lectures and discussions, there would also be large-scale musical performances from time to time and a continuing array of luncheon and dinner programs in the smaller seminar dining rooms. The Athenaeum would also operate its own kitchen to cater its fine dining dinner programs. While the Board of Trustees authorized $50,000 for working drawings, it would require more than fifteen years to build a permanent facility. With the long-range building project still in the future, the Athenaeum began its program in 1970 in the former President’s House, a full decade before it enjoyed its own building.

The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum and driveway.

A dedicated facility for the Athenaeum was revisited in 1980, led again by Donald McKenna who outlined a program budget of $2 million for the building and $4 million for endowment. McKenna had himself pledged a matching gift of $2 million, which was followed by a pledge of $250,000 from the Security Pacific Charitable Foundation of Los Angeles in recognition of the Security Pacific executives–George Martin, Chester Rude P’54, Edwin Corbin, and Richard Flamson ’51–who had served on the CMC Board of Trustees and had been influential in its development. This was followed by a gift of $1 million from Marian Miner Cook, widow of Trustee John Brown Cook who in 1978 had established the John Brown Cook Association for Freedom at CMC. Marian Miner Cook’s gift enabled the College to reach its $4 million objective and construction began on the new Athenaeum in the fall of 1982. Designed by A. Quincy Jones and Associates, the 15,000-square-foot facility was ready for dedication by September 1983. The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum soon fulfilled its promise of providing a venue with a collegial atmosphere linking sociability and intellectual life. Aside from the numerous distinguished speakers and events the Athenaeum has hosted over the years, the facility is also currently home to The Open Academy, which encourages and protects free speech by providing a cultural, social, and academic center for the interchange of ideas between CMC students, faculty, and community guests. The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum also houses CMC’s Dean of the Faculty offices.