For tens of thousands of EMU alumni, McKenny Union will always be remembered as the one and only place for hosting a meeting, eating a meal, buying a book, enjoying a dinner or social event, or just hanging out. Thousands will also remember the union for its bowling lanes, which operated in the basement from 1950 to 1998. Many other alumni literally slept in the union in the early 1950s, when sections of it were turned into a makeshift dormitory with temporary cots to serve a great influx of students, particularly former servicemen, enrolling in classes.
Those memories will never fade, even as the union goes into hibernation for a year to allow for some much-needed infrastructure improvements to take place. There will be no building access during the repairs. When it reopens next fall, the building will again be known as Charles McKenny Hall. (McKenny was president of what was then Michigan State Normal College from 1912 until his death in 1933.)
President McKenny dedicated the building Oct. 24, 1931. MSNC alumni conceived the idea for an alumni office and then promoted the construction of a building to house those operations. They helped raise the first donations toward the building's $500,000 construction cost. And for more than 30 years, the building looked as it did that first day, until renovations in 1963, 1991 and 1999 altered its appearance and floor layout.
The opening of the new Student Center required another change on the campus landscape: the razing of Pine Grove Apartments. The two-story buildings were cleared for the new union. Pine Grove had 168 one- and two-bedroom apartments. It was built in stages between 1955 and 1957 and served as housing for some of EMU's married students.

(For more on the new student center, including live construction photos, visit www.emich.edu/mckenny/newbuilding.htm.)