As the campus community prepares for the exciting completion of the new dining commons later this year, let us not forget how well the St. Germain Campus Center has served us over the past fifty two years. Opening in the fall of 1965, with a second wing added and opened in the spring of 1967, the Campus Center was designed to host a student lounge, snack bar, bookstore, conference space, and offices. The dining area on the second floor was built to hold 450 students. The Campus Center has certainly done all this and more over the years!

The Westerner, February 14, 1968

The Campus Center was named after D. Joseph St. Germain, a member of the Board of Trustees of Western New England College at the time, and the benefactor who provided sizable funds to make the construction possible.

What else was happening when the St. Germain Campus Center first opened its doors? Western New England officially became a residential campus in 1965 with the opening of the first dormitory, Hampden Hall. In addition to a dormitory, a small health services office with one nurse was opened in a house on Bradley Road. The School of Arts and Sciences was authorized that year, and opened a year later, increasing enrollment (especially female), and helping solidify the need for a residential campus and all of the associated buildings and services.

Check out the article below explaining the funding and plans for Western New England’s original Campus Center.

The Westerner, March 5, 1965.

Or take a look at the full page of the newspaper to see what else was happening at Western New England when the Campus Center was in the works. Surely they were just as excited about their new space as we are for ours!

Front page of The Westerner, March 5, 1965

What did your school look like 70 years ago? The Nor’easter, the school’s student newspaper at the time, published an article in 1947 that served as a walking tour through the school’s facilities.

Before reading the article, here are some quick facts about your school as it was in 1947 –

• The school was still affiliated with Northeastern University, and would not become Western New England College for another four years.
• Enrollment in 1947 was 660 – a high number, thanks in part to an influx of veterans returning home from the war.
• Because of the war years, however, the school only graduated nine students in June of 1947 (with the degree of Bachelor in Business Administration with specifications in Accounting, or Engineering and Business).
• The School of Law had been closed for five years, and would not be re instituted until the school established its own charter in 1951 (which is why the article mentions unused law books in the library).
• All classes were still held in the evening in downtown Springfield, at the YMCA on Chestnut Street (the article describes the setting very well!)

Article from The Nor’easter, October 1947.

Click on the article for a larger, readable image. Enjoy the tour!

The artist rendering below shows the Western New England campus as it was in 1966. Beginning in 1959 with the completion of the campus’ first building, Emerson Hall, the following 20 years saw the construction of 13 more buildings.

An artist’s rendering of campus, 1966. The campus center was not yet built when this rendering was made in 1965.

As can be seen by the drawing, there were two classroom buildings, the library, the administrative building, the campus center, and a men’s dormitory. Does something seem to be missing? There was no boarding for female students. Two more dormitories for men would be built on campus before a female dormitory was opened for residency in 1969. Even though women had attended the school since its founding, it wasn’t until the addition of the School of Arts and Sciences in 1966 that more women applied and attended, thus necessitating boarding for the growing population of female students.

Fun fact: Women were admitted to Northeastern University Springfield Division (later Western New England University) since its founding in 1919, two years before the main campus of Northeastern University in Boston admitted female students.