Sixth Street Cafeteria / Illini Union Coffee House

Originally known simply as the Sixth Street Cafeteria, [1] the student cafeteria at the corner of Sixth and Gregory was known by 1950 as the Illini Union Coffee House. Built as a Federal Works Agency project, and spawned out of a need to feed the influx of students after World War II and built by J. L. Simmons Co. Inc., the building opened its doors on November 6, 1947 [2] and was razed in the summer of 1962 to make way for the new Commerce West building. It was a "red-painted, rambling frame structure built after World War II as a temporary dining room". [3]