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Lawrence University Buildings of the Past
Hamar Union

Hamar Union (B-D-001) Hamar Union (B-D-002)

About Hamar Union

Constructed: construction date unknown; used as Hamar Union 1926-1952 and faculty apartments 1953-1960
Location: corner of Union Street and College Avenue, site currently occupied by Plantz Hall
Destroyed: 1960

Named in memory of Olive Hamar, who died while still a student on March 22, 1925 of meningitis following an appendix operation. She thought the college needed a "hospitality house." About $2,000 was raised through student pledges to start and furnish Hamar House. By the following fall the house -- "a place where college men and girls might meet to enjoy certain privacy and sociability not offered in the dormitory reception hall," as the committee delicately phrased it -- was ready.