Lane Hall History

Lane HallA History
- Jean Boyd, Class of 1949
I learned to think differently about my
own world because of…“
”

The Student Christian Association (SCA), which
was created at the University of Michigan in
1859, was the builder and first owner of Lane
Hall.
The SCA flourished as the most active student
organization at U-M before the turn of the
century, with broad-based programs that included
religious meetings and lectures, monthly news
bulletins, orientation programs for new students,
an employment bureau, and a foreign mission
program. Setting the SCA apart was its insistence
on the inclusion of women. Indeed, this policy
caused concern and conflict with the national
YMCA.
1859

In 1897, when the SCA refused
to create separate branches for
men and women, the YMCA
created a YWCA on campus. By
1904, these three organizations
saw a clear need for cooperation
and the SCA became the parent
body for the two Ys as program
centers. The YWCA provided
residence to women students in
Newberry Hall, and its
statuesque presence on the
central campus was the impetus
for the construction of Lane
Hall, which was to house the
SCA and the YMCA.
Newberry Hall - From The Chronicle, May 12, 1888
From Proposed New Building for YMCA, circa 1912
1897 - 1904

Plans for the new YMCA building and the selected site
were announced in the Michigan Alumnus magazine in
October 1911, with Otis and Clark of Chicago as the
architects. William A. Otis was a graduate of the U-M
Class of 1878. Shortly after the announcement, John D.
Rockefeller offered to donate $60,000 toward the project,
if the YMCA could raise the same amount by October 1,
1915, which they did.
“Lane Hall,” Julie Truettner, University Architect & Planner’s Office,
February 1998
1911 - 1915

Early design proposal by Otis Architects
1912

1916
The cornerstone was laid on May 16,1916.
The structure was of colonial design and measured 100
by 50 feet. The cost of the building was about $70,000.
An additional $30,000 for the site and $10,000 for the
furnishings brought the total to $125,000.
University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, Vol. IV. 1958

Lane Hall opened on March 2, 1917 and was named in
honor of Victor Hugo Lane (C.E. 1874, L.L.B. 1878),
University of Michigan Fletcher Professor of Law,
and judge at the First Judicial Circuit of Michigan.
1917

“
”- Victor Hugo Lane III, grandson of
Victor Hugo Lane
Victor Hugo Lane was born in 1852, in Geneva, Ohio, son of
Henry Lane, a farmer who appears to have swung some lead in
those parts. That Henry was a man of substance makes it all the
more remarkable that his wife, one Clotilda Catherine Sawyer, was
able to convince him they should name their first-born child after
some poncy French writer, a liberal-cum-revolutionary who, four
years before, in the politically turbulent year of 1848, was banished
from France by Napoleon III as a threat to public order. Not the
sort of chap most American gentlemen of gravitas go about
naming their sons after. The more surprising, then, that by 1852
Hugo had yet to publish any of his best-known writings. Les
Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Man Who Laughs
were all published well after VHL’s birth, so clearly his mother was
an extraordinarily erudite young woman, who had been reading
the incendiary, rabble-rousing essays and shorter fictions of a man
as yet little known outside of France, and whose works thus far, as
far as I can ascertain, were still only available in French! Some
going for an Ohio farmer’s wife!

Lane’s four children, including his two daughters,
Mildred and Charlotte, were alumni of U-M. Lane
himself played a vital role in the development of the
religious and social life of students, serving as
President of the Student Christian Association, the
first occupant of Lane Hall. Lane’s great-great
grandson, Victor Hugo Lane IV, received his Ph.D. in
history from U-M in 1999.

When Lane Hall opened in 1917: “In the basement
were two offices, a large club room, classrooms
and apartments for janitors and a caretaker; the
main floor was devoted to the Board room, offices,
five studies for student pastors, and a library; the
second floor contained an auditorium seating 450
people and equipment for motion-picture
projection in the gallery opposite the platform, a
kitchen, dining rooms, four classrooms, two guest
rooms, and a private bath for guests.”
University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, Vol. IV. 1958
1917

Around the lobby are grouped offices for the
various pastors of the Ann Arbor churches where
they may hold office hours for consultation with
students…. These rooms are attractively
furnished with large over-stuffed divans in dark
bluish-green tapestry. At the windows hang
bright chintz curtains. A feature of the building
are the simple and dignified fireplaces found in all
the main rooms.
Michigan Alumnus, April 1917
1917

The services of Lane Hall reached into all aspects
of student life. In the 1920s and 30s, it hosted the
activities of such diverse groups as the Student
Employment Bureau, the Chinese, Japanese,
“Hindustan,” and Philippine Clubs, and the Jewish
Student Congregations. In the large auditorium
on the second floor, different groups held lectures,
musical and theatrical productions, and popular
showings of “moving pictures.” The Student
Christian Association tended to the spiritual,
social, and physical well-being of students. One
of its primary activities was the dissemination of
information about “sex hygiene,” and a decrease in
venereal disease among students was attributed to
the public lectures held in Lane Hall’s auditorium.

“Manhood and Womanhood”
From A Message of Service pamphlet,
Student Christian Association
1918

“The Best Student Religious
Building in America”
From The Michigan Religious Union
pamphlet
1920 -1921

“Winter
headquarters,
Lane Hall.”
From “S.C.A. Wolverine.”
January 8, 1927
1927

“Lane Hall, Association
Building, Widely Used”
From “S.C.A. Wolverine.” January 8, 1927
1927

From “Endowment at Seventy Necessary” pamphlet of the Student Christian Association.
1928
Celebrating the personalities…and “Oh, yes, the women…”

The University acquired both Lane Hall and Newberry Hall as
gifts in 1936 when the SCA could no longer maintain the
properties.
On November 12, 1936, Mr. Emory J. Hyde, Chairman of the
Board of Trustees of the SCA, wrote to the U-M Board of
Regents:
1936
“We offer to the board of Regents as a gift the
properties known as Lane Hall and Newberry Hall,
providing that the Board of Regents assume the
responsibility for a program that will tend to
encourage student interest and study in the broader
aspects of religious education and properly
coordinated student activities in religious fields.”
“Historical Sketch Relating to Building and Facilities for Religious Affairs at the
University of Michigan” April 2, 1959. U-M Office of Ethics and Religion, Bentley
Historical Library

Broadening the scope of activities to reflect the diversity
of religious associations on campus, the University
created the Student Religious Association (SRA), which
included inter-faith study meetings, meditation groups,
and the Ann Arbor Society of Friends. For twenty year,
Lane Hall was a central meeting place for activist
students and faculty. What was then called “The Lane
Hall Program” included opportunities for political
debate, discussion groups about democracy and current
social issues, a series of outreach programs both in the
United States and abroad, as well as lectures and dances.

Lane Hall Departure to
Freshman Rendezvous
1937
Freshman Rendezvous were
three day orientation campus
visits for incoming students to
get to know each other and to
learn about the academic, social
and religious life awaiting them
at U-M. It was one of the most
popular programs of the SRA
and was continued under the
ORA after 1956.

1938-
Student Religious Association pamphlet,
1940-41.
“The Student Religious Association is that part
of University in which you may grow in the
realm of religious, social, and ethical values as
you progress with the acquiring of technique
elsewhere. In the Association, you may seek
answers to some of your personal problems and
to those which society faces….It deals with
problems related to every part of the
University, in fact, to human life wherever
found. Ethical questions, questions of value, are
only important when attached to other elements
of life.
Lane Hall is the center for the Association’s
activities. In it is a growing library of religious
and social literature, books and periodicals.
There are meeting rooms, offices, rooms for
luncheons and social activities. Use it; it is
yours.”
Michigan Handbook, 1938-1939 (Published by the SRA)

Student Religious Association Coffee Hour at Lane Hall
1941

1941
Student Religious Association Fireside Discussion at Lane Hall

In the mid-1940s, Lane Hall regularly hosted meetings
that complemented the SRA programs, such as the
pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation and
groups that fostered democracy on campus such as
Group Z and Insight. The newsletters of the SRA
published student debates about aid to post-war Europe,
the impact of racism on campus and the advocacy of
civil rights, and social reforms such as the Fair
Employment Practice Bill. Lew Towler, a graduate from
1950 and an active member of the SRA, particularly
remembers the work of the World Student Service
Fund, the relief packages which the SRA sent to Europe
after the war, and a boycott which he organized against a
local barber shop when they claimed not to be able to cut
the hair of black customers because they lacked the
appropriate tools.

1945
Events Today
A Lane Hall luncheon will be held today at 12 o’clock.
Following the luncheon, the book, “Democracy in
America” by Alexis De Tocqueville, will be reviewed by
Scott Mayakawa. Call Lane Hall for reservations before 10
o’clock Saturday morning.
Michigan Daily, December 8, 1945

1946
Insight Brochure. Insight was a student group that fostered democracy
on campus, especially through an active student government.

1946
Replication and reformatting of pages 1 and 2, “Lane Hall Notebook,” November 1, 1946.
Bentley Historical Library.

Lane Hall buzzed with the activities of these student-led
social and political organizations. In keeping with the
original spirit of the SCA, women were encouraged to
play leadership roles in all initiatives. In 1945, college
senior Joyce Siegan served as President of the executive
committee of the SRA, and Phylis Eggleton, Allene
Golinkin, Marilyn Mason, and Mary Shepard were
committee members. Other key positions that reflect the
diversity of SRA programming included: Vivi Lundi as
Secretary of the Inter-Cooperative Council, the central
agency for the U-M’s cooperative houses; Bobbie
Simonton as Chair of the World Student Service Fund
which sponsored an international student relief drive;
Barbara Hazelton as President of the Post War Council,
which was concerned with issues of international
cooperation; Norma Lyon as Secretary of the Inter-
Racial Council, a student group that identified racism as
“America’s Number One Problem” and devoted its work
to improving relations within the U-M community.

“
”
As a young instructor around 1947, I met in Lane
Hall with student/faculty religious groups. Franklin
Little was our mentor, and a wonderful role model
to follow. He encouraged us and listened to us and
was a great inspiration to many.
- Marilyn Mason, Professor of Music
and University Organist since 1947

“
”
In 1945, I came to the University of Michigan. I
traveled with my twin sister, Janie, from a very small
town in upper New York State where I had been born
and raised as a farm girl. We had never been away from
home until we came to the University of Michigan. Janie
and I were quite poor and had to work our way through
college. When we were freshmen, we got jobs at Lane
Hall. My older sister had recently graduated from U of
M and she was the assistant to the Director of Lane Hall
(that is probably how we got the jobs). Lane Hall was the
home of the interdenominational organizations on
campus; we attended all of the events and I met my first
rabbi and Catholic priest at Lane Hall. I learned to think
differently about my own world because of Lane Hall. It
is funny. We always talked about Lane Hall as a person,
not a building. For example, we would say, ‘Lane Hall is
sponsoring a mixer tonight.’
- Jean Boyd, Class of 1949

“
”- Robina Quale Leach, Class of 1952,
Secretary of the SRA 1951-52
There were a lot of discussion groups, and a
great variety among them. But that was not
really my bag. I was more concerned with
trying to organize helpful projects in the
community. There was a fair amount of that.
We organized a lot of drives together,
gathering clothing or food for local charities.
And whenever there was a disaster, we
organized a campaign. I remember the big
signs: Wheat for India! Wheat for India! And
we raised money to buy the wheat.

Lane Hall, the University’s religious center,
is open to all races and creeds. It stands for
no one denomination, and it is where
students of all denominations learn to
appreciate other beliefs. These three coeds,
actually caught at random as they entered,
represent (from left to right) the Episcopal
Canterbury Club, the Jewish Hillel Council,
and Christian Science. Robina Quale (left)
from Canterbury Club is a junior from
Onekama, Mich., and secretary of Inter-
Guild, one of the student religious groups
at Lane Hall. The others are Carol
Schnapik (center), a junior from New York,
and Betty Ostrander, a sophomore from
Stockbridge.
Michigan Daily, March 31, 1951.
“Through the Open Door.”
1951

It was the beginning of a new level of diversity.
During our first meeting when I was SRA
representative from the Canterbury Club in 1951,
Uncle Cy [Baldwin] said, “Let’s sing the doxology”
(the song which ends, “praise father, son and holy
ghost”). A person from Hillel said “we can’t sing
that.” Baldwin was very much the uncle type, open
and warm. He was apologizing all over for not
thinking about that. The gears were just beginning
to shift. First Jewish, then Muslim and Hindu
groups were beginning to participate.
“
”- Robina Quale Leach, Class of 1952,
Secretary of the SRA 1951-52

The SRA did a lot
to promote inter-
faith cooperation
and harmony, and
served a very
positive role in the
life of the
University and, I
hope, to reduce
prejudice.
- Alan Berson,
Class of 1953
“
”
S.R.A. members and staff on the steps of Lane Hall, 1951

1953
SRA staff Dewitt Baldwin, Doris Harpole and Grey Austin

- C.E. Olson, Class of 1952 and
Professor Emeritus, School of
Natural Resources &
Environment
“
”
SRA cabinet meeting in the Lane Hall library, 1953
While an undergraduate
(1948-1952), I remember
walking in the front door,
crossing the central lobby to
the library which was in the
back left corner…The
library contained a
collection of religious books
from many faiths and it was
there I first read the Koran.
The Christian Science
Organization at U of M also
kept a Bible and a copy of
Science & Health with Key
to the Scriptures in the
library, and marked with the
current week’s bible lesson.

There was a really large expanse of an entryway. People
didn’t worry about whether space was “being used” in those
days. But as budgets got tighter and programs expanded,
people started looking for space not adequately used and
tried to fill it. The entryway was a gathering place for
students: Sometimes groups of student were just sitting
around on the floor, whether talking or playing a game or
whatever. The space at the south end of the building was a
library, with a fireplace and built-in shelves…We used to
hold discussion groups there, lecturers might come over and
talk informally, or a visitor would come and we would stand
around and talk. Every week we had a sort of tea or a lunch.
They were good years.
“
”- Grey Austin, Assistant Coordinator of Religious Affairs, 1952-1963

1953
Grey Austin and Dewitt Baldwin with students in the Lane Hall lobby

“
”- Grey Austin, Assistant Coordinator of Religious Affairs,
1952-1963
Social action was an unusual activity for university-
sponsored events, yet we were very socially active in the
civil rights movement. I remember one time for our
Freshmen Rendezvous one of the students we invited to
speak to the freshmen was Tom Hayden, then editor of the
Michigan Daily and later one of the students involved in
creating SDS, Students for a Democratic Society. He was
not specifically involved in religious activities, but he came
out to help us orient the freshmen.

“
”- Alan Berson, Class of 1953
I remember a campaign that I initiated that only bore
fruition after I left: it was to have comparative religion
taught at the University as an academic subject. At that
time, because the U of M was a state university, it had
been argued that they could not teach religion in any form,
partly because of the U.S. Constitution. However, I argued,
and got a lot of support, that did not preclude comparative
religion being taught, as long as no particular religion was
promoted over any other.

…Recreational activities compose a large
part of the Lane Hall curriculum. Square
dances and coffee hours are held weekly. A
carol sing, Christmas party, SRA picnic and
open house are included among these
activities. For all the students who are
unable to go home, Lane Hall serves a
Thanksgiving breakfast. Lane Hall is
available as a general meeting place where
students come in to relax or watch TV in
the television lounge. A library, craft shop,
auditorium, music room and photography
dark room are among the various facilities it
offers.
Michigan Daily, November 20, 1954.
“Lane Hall Provides Campus Center
for Religious Activities”
1954-1955 Michigan Daily, November 16, 1955.

“
”- Grey Austin, Assistant Coordinator of
Religious Affairs, 1952-1963
Those days at Lane Hall were interesting,
stimulating, and, much of the time, sheer fun. It
took a distance of 40-50 years to realize that we
were really doing some ground-breaking things. It
was an honor to be a part of all that, and I’m glad
the old building is still being a place for
consciousness-expanding activity.

Life at Lane Hall
1956 - present

In 1956, as part of larger changes in the University, the
SRA was folded into the new Office of Religious Affairs
(ORA). The Director was moved from Lane Hall to the
new Student Activities Building, and the Lane Hall
program was slowly phased out. By the early 1960s, the
ORA was no longer using Lane Hall at all and space was
made available to various student service programs, such
as the Counseling Division and Reading Improvement
Services.

“The Use of Lane Hall. The year 1956-57 was seen as a period of
experimentation for a new pattern of religious affairs and therefore
reassignment of the space in Lane Hall was held in abeyance until the
effect of the reorganization upon the use of the building could be
observed….As a result of a year of experience, it has become obvious to
us that the facilities provided in Lane Hall are not being used to capacity
and that the existence of a quantity of unused and usable space is not
appropriate to a campus on which many agencies are seriously in need
of added facilities. The reasons for unused space are as follows:
1. The reorganization has left us in a position in which we no longer
sponsor student religious or interreligious activities in a religious
center.
2. We no longer work with an activities group which would consider
Lane Hall to be its home.
3. The Student Activities Building and the recent addition to the
Union make many more facilities for student activities available.
4. Religious organizations are using the new facilities as a means of
moving closer to the center of student activity.
continued…

…In view of these facts, the Board of Governors in their
meeting on May 27th accepted a recommendation of the Staff
that a considerable amount of space in Lane Hall be shared with
another agency and it is expected that in the course of the next
month or two, Vice-President Lewis will work out arrangements
for that change.”
First Annual Report of the Work of the Office of Religious Affairs,
July 1, 1956 – June 30, 1957, Bentley Historical Library
1956-1957

While the reorganization occurred, the School of Music
made use of Lane Hall, turning the stage and offices into
rehearsal areas while waiting for the completion of its
new building, which opened in 1964.

When I came to the U of M in the early sixties as an
undergraduate cello major, the School of Music was
scattered across main campus in several buildings. Cellists
practiced five at a time across the basement of Hill
Auditorium or in the bathroom of Burton Tower. Our
recital hall was the little auditorium in Lane Hall. Once as
a sophomore I got up on that stage and, in a state of high
nervousness, performed the Saint-Saens cello concerto. At
the end, in a state of equally high relief, I stood up, bowed,
and smiled from ear to ear. My husband of thirty-five
years has always insisted that it was that smile on the Lane
Hall stage that caused him to fall in love with me!
“
”- Enid Sutherland, Class of 1965, Adjunct Associate Professor in the
School of Music since 1970

During this time, Cold War politics had heightened
national awareness of the need for research on foreign
countries and cultures. In 1958, the federal government
increased funding for area centers with passage of the
National Defense Education Act, of which Title VI
promoted area and language studies. Lane Hall soon
became the hub of international studies. For over thirty
years, the Title VI Area Studies Centers – Japanese
Studies, Chinese Studies, Middle East and North African
Studies, Russian and East European Studies, South and
Southeast Asian Studies – turned “Lane Hall” into a
nationally recognized keyword for Area Studies.

August 27, 1963
Memo
From: W.D. Schorger, Chairman, Area Studies Committee
TO: Director Area Centers (R.K. Beardsley, A. Feuerwerker,
L.A.P. Gosling, G. Kish)
I have, this date, been informed by Dean Thuma that Lane Hall
has officially been assigned to the use of the Area Centers. We
will not be able to occupy the premises until sometime in the
middle of the spring of 1964 as it will take time for the Music
School to move its instruments and equipment once its new
quarters are completed. No courses can be scheduled for Lane
Hall for the spring semester, but thorough plans can be made for
the utilization prior to the time of our move.
Center for Chinese Studies, Box 1, Bentley Historical Museum
1963

From my perspective, Lane Hall was a hub of activity not
only because of the administrative offices, but the series of
bag lunches, the classes, the public lectures sponsored by
the centers, the Gednes Thai Language library, the AAS –
all of these attracted people to the building. It was the
center for people interested in area studies and offered a
real opportunity for students and faculty to interact with
one another. It was a good nucleus of people.
“
”- Frank Shulman, Center for Japanese Studies, 1965-1976

Frank Joseph Shulman lived in Lane Hall. The famous
Asian bibliographer and writer of authoritative books
actually lived in Lane Hall and kept his personal library
there for many years. At the time it was not uncommon to
leave typewriters and basic office supplies open to the Area
Center students for their use during off hours. Frank
moved his sleeping bag between various offices. In the late
70s he got a job at the University of Maryland and I
helped him gather his books from throughout the building
and especially the attic to fill the largest U-Haul available
to move them to a different University.
“
”- Beni, Student of Japanese Studies 1970-77; Center
for Chinese Studies and then International Institute
from 1978

- Peter Gosling, Professor
Emeritus of Anthropology and
often Director of the Center of
South and Southeast Asian
Studies, 1958-1994
“
”
China Studies class in the basement of Lane Hall, 1970s.
In the 70s once when we
were having some event
in the auditorium, people
had brought beer and
wine and were drinking.
A security guard told us
that was against policy.
‘It’s a Javanese custom,’ I
told him. The security
guard said, ‘That’s a good
answer,’ and he left.

Architectural Description:
Landscape: Double-row of luxuriant, intense-purple lilac bushes
now flanks front doors.
Exterior: Best Georgian style building on campus, notable for
large-pane windows and for double French doors with shallow
balconies on first floor (only one set survives the initial burst of
energy-saving measures of 1973); mansard roof and dormers.
Five Area Studies Centers, on moving in, engaged in
‘negotiations’ approaching fratricide to determine respective
territorial claims; have evolved numerous cooperative uses of
space and facilities since – though issues of appropriate design
style for lobby décor (charges of area-imperialism) threatened to
break the truce in 1970.
Plant Office, 1977
1977

There was a tremendous amount of cooperation and
collaboration in the early days. A warm, puppy feeling
of camaraderie. We worked together to get the Ford
grant, to create the Collective Asia Course and the
‘Flying Circus’ course that we taught as an extension
throughout Michigan. It was exciting. But as we grew
and each center became successful, we also grew apart.
We were still all enthusiastically pushing Asia, but
there was more competition, vying for positions in
departments and for space. The ‘space wars’ as we
called them were always going on. You’d see people
walking around with blue prints and wonder, Who is
going to pull the coup? Periodically you’d have to
defend your use of space. Russian Studies was always
the major target of the space wars…But even with the
space wars, there was a strong sense of community.
“
”- Peter Gosling, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and
often Director of the Center of South and Southeast Asian Studies,
1958-1994

I was told by Professor George Mendenhall (Near
Eastern Studies) that when the building was used for
Religious Affairs, weddings occasionally took place in
the building. He remembered in the ‘60s and ‘70s being
approached by a couple who wanted the place where
they stood to get married to be marked off forever as
‘sacred space.’ While understanding their desire to
maintain their memories intact he was only too acutely
aware that the space had now passed to area centers,
that every corner of the building was used, and that
the University was getting into increasing trouble in
allotting – or even defining – sacred space.
“
”- Betsy Barlow, Center for Middle Eastern and North
African Studies, 1981-2000

One character means ‘to meditate, reflect, discuss’ and the
other means ‘pool by a cave.’ Together they referred to the
pond and rock garden they hung above, and basically
meant ‘pond for meditation/reflection/discussion.’
“
”- Don Munroe, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, on the Chinese
characters that used to hang in Lane Hall

Beardsley was a dynamic force, and he was the one behind
the creation of the lobby. Lester Fader from the College of
Architecture designed it. It was like a tinker toy set –
basically two pieces, and it went up in a weekend. Then
Rhoads Murphey got the pond idea. The bubbling water
used to drive us nuts. But the students would sit out there,
study, sit and talk, meet with other students.
“
”- Bob Dernberger, Class of 1958, Professor of Economics and
often Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, 1967-1997

Students in the Lane Hall lobby
1970s

A Bat in the Tea Garden
One year we had quite a problem with a bat in the tatami
tea garden. The raised tatami mats and garden of stones
had been established in the lobby by the Asian Studies
program in the early 1970s. Unnoticed, a tiny bat hung
sleeping, upside-down, on one of the garden supports.
Later the bat moved to the corner wall clock-where no one
could avoid seeing. When the bat moved a bit farther from
the clock, some staff members became uncomfortable. Of
course, the bat slept soundly all day, every day, and we were
unable to encourage it to wake up and move out. After a
few days, I called the ‘wildlife rescue’ people, wanting to be
as humane as possible. I was astonished to discover the
small army of substantial looking people, wearing heavy
boots and thick gloves, and carrying a considerable amount
of equipment that had been sent to contemplate the
problem. With their collective force, they did indeed
manage to capture the teeny-tiny bat in a teeny-tiny box.
“
”- Elsie Orb, Center for Japanese Studies, 1973-1991

Asian scholars across the country knew the Lane Hall
Thai library, the Association of Asia Studies at 1 Lane
Hall, and the “Lane Hall Program” (the Program in
Asian Studies in Education, which prepared high school
curriculum materials). Lane Hall nurtured various
research projects in tiny offices on the third floor; the
East Asia Business Program, which became the Japan
Technology management Program, and the Southeast
Asia Business Program; the US-Japan Joint Automotive
Industry Project, created in the late 1970s; the work of
the great bibliographer of Japanese Studies, Naomi
Fukuda, who worked in a little box in the basement; the
Copernicus Endowment created in 1973 to encourage
Polish studies and programming. Through the Centers,
the building hosted visitors who regularly created a stir,
including President Gerald Ford, Adam Michnik, and
the Dalai Lama.

One of my most vivid memories was going up
and down two flights of stairs for two weeks on
crutches; and the FBI coming in our offices to
make sure the building was safe for Gerald R.
Ford to give a lecture there.
“
”- Darlene Breitner, Center for Russian
and Eastern European Studies, 1972-
1997

Visit of President Gerald Ford to Lane Hall – April 6, 1977
On the day U.S. President Gerald Ford was scheduled to
teach in a political science class on the second floor
classroom of Lane Hall, the building both inside and
outside was swarming with hefty Secret Service agents. We
decided that no one would be able to work anyway, so we
opened our large office double doors to give us a good view
of the lobby, settled on the couch and waited to see the
President enter. Finally the entourage arrived. The
President, closely flanked by his aides, swept up the stairs
on the north side of the building (rather than the south side
which was closest to us). The discussion about seeing the
President from the vantage point of the Center went
something like: Did you see him? Well, I think so. He is tall, isn’t
he? Wasn’t that the top of his head in the middle of the crowd?
“
”- Kathleen Wilson, Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, 1975-
1982

A Reception for Bashir Gemayel who became President of Lebanon
I remember when the Center hosted Bashir Gemayel, a
Maronite leader who was elected president of Lebanon in
1982 and was assassinated a few days later. His brother Amin
then became the President of Lebanon. He gave a lecture in
Lane Hall followed by a reception. About half of the
attendees were men from the Christian Lebanese community
in Detroit who came to protect the honoree. At that time the
United States was trying to cultivate strong Lebanese
leaders-but they made some enemies inviting Gemayel here.
Security was a problem and all these big, beefy guys standing
around looking out the windows of our office and checking
and rechecking the doors was quite intimidating.
“
”- Kathleen Wilson, Center for Near Eastern and North African
Studies, 1975-1982

1980-
Director Ernest Abdel-Massih (far right) and Kathy Wilson (far left),
Center for Middle Eastern and Near Asian Studies Main Office

My fondest memories of Lane Hall are centered around the
Russian Center Reading Room, the informal ‘watering hole’
for graduate students from any number of majors who had a
Russian or East European academic focus. The Center for
Russian and East European Studies (CREES) had been the de
facto – if not de jure – intellectual home for many of us, and
the Center Reading Room was the place we could gather,
exchange ideas, build friendships, and think about our career
futures. The hominesss of the building, the reality of always
friendly staff nearby, the generally near-full (or at least, not
empty) coffee pot around the bend, and the plethora of
conveniently located reading materials, all lent themselves to
a comfortable and supportive atmosphere…. Indeed, Lane
Hall was always my second home when in Ann Arbor. Much
of my dissertation was written there – I can still recall the
all-nighters there, and I did appreciate the availability of the
coffee pot (and the fact that, as a Center employee, I had
access to the building and to making coffee!).
“
”- Pat Willerton, graduate student in Russian Studies and
Political Science, 1978-1985

I remember when I first walked into the building
in 1985 as a masters student; I thought, ‘how cool.’
It was warm and cozy, very Asian with the tatami,
homey to students. Japanese language students
used to do their exams on the pillows. Of course
there were drawbacks working there….schlepping
boxes of copy paper up to the third floor because
there was no elevator wasn’t very fun.
“
”- Pat O’Connell-Young, Center for Chinese Studies
since 1992

Lane Hall Lilac Bushes Attacked at Dawn
It was at the dawn of the workday (around 8 o’clock) one morning
in spring when the lilac bushes surrounding the building and the
wide front steps of Lane Hall were about to bloom. Suddenly men
on bulldozers roared up to the building and began to uproot the lilac
bushes! The staff of the Centers were horrified. Somehow the
beautiful and spacious Lane Hall felt more like a home than a
workplace, and we looked forward to and cherished the sweet and
abundant lilacs that bloomed in our front yard each spring. We
panicked at the size and speed of the bush attackers, and felt as if
someone was violating our private property. Although I was a new
administrative assistant, I was asked to contact the head of Plant
Services, and communicate the staff sense of outrage at the loss of
the lilacs- just before they bloomed! And incredibly, the bulldozers
were stopped, before noon. Bushes that had been uprooted were
placed back in the ground (where unfortunately, they withered and
died). But the huge bushes lining the front steps were left untouched.
They bloomed that year and continued to add beauty and delight to
every spring as long as the Centers were located in Lane Hall!
“
”- Mary Mostaghim, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies,
1980-2000

The Seringa Microphila was in jeopardy because of a
construction project. The plant department contacted me to
see what we could do to rehabilitate the site, and even
improve it, because the lilac bushes had to go and people
weren’t happy about it. So it became a site rehab job, one of
those items in that bailiwick where graduate students were
involved making the plan, presenting the proposal, etc. This
was in 1985 or so. It was a nice mini student project with 4-
5 students involved for the design. They planted some
Asiatic lilac (the Seringa Meyeri, or the dwarf Korean lilac)
and put in some Serbian spruce that has a form that looks
like a Japanese bagoda. This was to stay in keeping with the
building, which did have an Asian theme.
“
”- Chuck Jenkins, Professor of Planting Design and
Ornamental Design in Landscape Architecture, 1965-
1999

The Association for Asian Studies, the world’s
biggest area studies association with some 8,000
members, was famously headquartered in the
basement for many years. Famous in that
Asianists everywhere knew about Lane Hall but
the few who actually visited were appalled by
the rabbit-warren conditions of life…..It’s a
great building—I miss it.
“
”- John Campbell, Professor of
Political Science, Director of the
Center for Japanese Studies,
1982-1987

When Blanchard was governor, China opened up and a
series of sister state relations were created. U-M wanted
Michigan to partner with Liaoning because of its
automobile industry, while Michigan State wanted
Sichuan because of its heavy agriculture. Michigan State
got it, but they really didn’t have any center that could
carry through as the governor’s hand-maiden. This was
all very important to Governor Blanchard because he
found out that going to China stood for good press, and
he was pretty upset with Michigan State. He wanted U-
M to take it on….Ken DeWoskin volunteered and totally
wowed the governor. That was up on the 3rd floor of
Lane Hall: the governor’s sister state relations office
running the program with Sichuan. The Governor was so
pleased with the success that he once came to sign an
Education Bill in the lobby of Lane Hall.
“
”- Bob Dernberger, Class of 1958, Professor of
Economics and often Director of the Center for Chinese
Studies, 1967-1997

1988
A meal in the Lane Hall Commons
Room. CREES Conference on
“Religion and Marxism in East
Central Europe,” October 1988.

1990
Mary Ringia Mostaghim (CMENAS) by the Lane Hall rock garden, circa
1990. The rock garden was created in the 1970s by Asian Studies graduate
students in Professor Rhoads Murphey’s history class. On each side of the
rock garden, a raised floor provided a place for students to sit and study.

1991
Professor William Malm’s Japanese Music Study Group

One thing I remember is getting Professor Oksana
Beidina, a female professor of economics at a Russian
university to run a course on Russian business for MBA
students from the B-school. We dragged those business
students to Moscow, made them stay in dormitories and
then subjected them to a woman’s view of the Russian
economy. Including female business people who were
totally dismissive of men as incompetents.
“
”- Jane Burbank, Professor of History, Director of the
Center for Russian and East European Studies, 1992-
1995

1992
Fredj Stambouli’s sociology course,
visiting professor from Tunisia

I was up in the attic for six and a half years. It was hot.
Even in the dead of winter, boiling hot. There was no
elevator, the bathrooms were in the basement so you never
wanted to drink very much. There were three offices up in
the attic. You were up high and couldn’t see because the
windows were high and narrow, but we got the most
fabulous sunsets. They were just terrific. One time, we had
a visitor from the University of New Mexico when we
were having a terrible winter. In 53 days we had had a total
of 5 hours of sunlight. There we were with these little
narrow windows. And then all of a sudden, this bright ray
of sunlight comes through. All of us who lived in Ann
Arbor stopped and our jaws dropped, just staring at that
ray of sunshine. The guy from New Mexico was saying,
‘What is going on?’ And we were all saying, ‘The sun, the
sun.’ We couldn’t talk, we were so thrilled to see this slice
of sunlight coming in through the narrow window.
“
”- Heidi Tietjen, Center for Japanese Studies, 1988-1997

Most of my memories of the place are not terribly
positive ones – e.g., writing one DE grant proposal in
sweaters and wool hats since the furnace was broken and
it took several days to repair it; during roof repairs,
coming to my office finding water leaking into my office
and also finding a bat hanging from the CREES bulletin
board (Beni caught it and put it back in the attic). Wish
we’d gotten a picture of the bat on the bulletin
board…..That early cold spell and work without heat
would have been in October 1996.
“
”- Donna Parmelee, Center for Russian and
Eastern European Studies since 1990

1996
A CREES course in oral history and focus group methods in the
Lane Hall Commons Room (Ford Foundation-sponsored project,
“Identity Formation and Social Problems in Estonia, Ukraine,
and Uzbekistan”)

1996
China Center Staff Meredith Flax,
Pat O’Connell Young and Ena
Schlorff. The yellow pennant says
“Danger.”

1997
Moving Out
Marysia Ostafin (CREES) Pat O’Connell Young (China)Donna Parmelee & Gwen
Tessier (CREES)

One might ask where are the BIG rocks from the
lobby area? Well, they are now residing in faculty
and staff gardens. Happily reminding us all of Lane
and the years we all spent there.
“
”- Pat O’Connell-Young,
Center for Chinese Studies since 1992

The Area Studies Centers moved out in November 1997
to join the International Institute in their new quarters
on South University. The School of Natural Resources
moved in briefly (May 1998 – January 1999) while
renovations were done on their building.

My very temporary quarters in summer 1998 at
Lane Hall: A lovely, quaint place at the north end of
the second floor…The purple finches never seemed
to mind the busy bus traffic. And the view across
Washington was surprisingly pastoral.
“
”- Rachel Kaplan, Professor of Environmental
Psychology in the School of Natural Resources
since 1978

In the meantime, in the spring of 1997, the University
offered Lane Hall as the best campus building available
for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and
the Women’s Studies Program (which had been located
in West Hall). The University agreed that an addition
would be needed to meet the space needs of these new
tenants, and after much discussion, planning, and
drawing, renovations and construction began in
February 1999.

1999
The addition to Lane Hall.
Picture by Tom Walterhouse, spring 1999.

1999
Renovations in the Lane Hall commons room

1999
Lane Hall cornerstone

”- Heidi Tietjen, Center for
Japanese Studies.
“They were the BEST
lilac bushes.
Many of the original lilac
bushes (pictured left) were
pulled out for the renovations.
Eventually, new lilac bushes
were replanted.

2000
New lilac bushes planted at Lane Hall

By June 2000, administrative staff from the Institute and
Women’s Studies, faculty and student researchers,
program directors, as well as women’s studies faculty
from departments across campus started settling into
the new quarters. The renovated and expanded Lane
Hall – with faculty and graduate student offices,
classrooms, information/technology labs, interview
rooms, meeting rooms, research bays, a library, and
exhibition space for University and local artists – reflects
what we feels is an unprecedented and exciting
commitment by the University to scholarship and
teaching on women and gender.

2000
Lane Hall Opening Celebration

We would like to thank everyone who helped to make
this exhibit possible, including Kathy Marquis and all of
the staff at the Bentley Historical Library, as well as C.
Grey Austin from the days of the S.R.A., and many
faculty and staff of the Area Studies Centers, with
special thanks for the time and enthusiasm of Beni,
Mary Mostaghim, and Pat O’Connell-Young.
Most of the photos were duplicated from originals at the
Bentley Historical Library. Additional photo
contributions were from C. Grey Austin, Tom
Walterhouse, and the Area Studies Center.
Special thanks to Kristin McGuire for initially compiling
and editing this exhibit.

Lane Hall History

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