Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Illini Union [PAGE 4]

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HISTORY

The IUini Union is more than a building — it is an institution with its roots deep in the past. The completion of the original building in 1941 was the realization of a dream held by many Illini since the beginning of the century. Two active student organizations — the Women's League organized in 1897, and the Illinois Union organized for men students in 1909 — saw the need for a Union building as they worked together on Homecoming festivities, pep rallies, cap burnings, and student operas. In 1910 these student groups began making their plans and desires known. It took them nine years to get a start. In 1919, the Illinois Union rented quarters on the first floor of the Y.M.C.A. building at the corner of Wright and John streets — now Illini Hall. By 1927, the Union had purchased the entire Y.M.C.A. building plus the Bradley Arcade as an annex. The Union was then a separate corporation — called the University of Illinois Union, Inc. — directed by students and faculty. It owned all the property, and within the ranges of its fluctuating income from voluntary membership, it guided student activities throughout the twenties and most of the thirties. Meanwhile, interest in a specially built Union building intensified until 1934, when A. C. Willard was inaugurated as president of the University. One of President Willard's first official acts was to appoint a committee to investigate the Union building problem. This committee didn't leave a person uncounted nor a site unmeasured in its attempt to find the right location. When the University decided to raze University Hall — the site on which the Illini Union was built — the decision was unanimous.

University Hall, built in 1871, once stood on the site now occupied by the 1961 addition to the Illini Union.