Before there was the Ferguson Center, there was the Alabama Union building. Now known as Reese Phifer Hall, housing the College of Communication and Information Sciences, the building served as the student union for forty years, from its construction in 1929 to the completion of the Ferg in the early 1970s.

The Alabama Union building housed the dining hall and the Supe Store, and with its corner location and lofty steps, it often served as the focal point for big discussions on campus. In fact, it still provides a prominent place for public protests, such as the 2005 marathon reading of Alabama’s long, unwieldy state constitution.

(1950s)

(1950s, rear, from a building across the street)

(1945, view from the Alabama Union steps)

(dining room, late 1960s)

(coffee bar, late 1960s)

(commons, late 1960s)

(1964, during SGA elections)

(1968, during peace vigil for Vietnam War)

(May 1970, during period of unrest after the Kent State and Jackson State student shootings; see this post for more on that time, including pictures inside the Alabama Union and out)

(May 1970, C&BA Professor John Bickley with students)

(1940s)