Beautiful Places on Campus
Sometimes between the cold and the snow, USU can seem a dreary place, but it does have its hidden gems. Some of the unique places of beauty on campus include the O.C. Tanner Lounge, The Hatch Room and The Caine Room.
The O.C. Tanner Lounge
The ninth floor of the Business building holds the O.C. Tanner Lounge, a room quite unlike any other room on campus.
Around 1969, right as the Business building was nearing completion, O.C. Tanner came to visit. Standing at the bottom of the building and looking up, he asked what the top of the building was used for. When he was told it would just be used for mechanical storage, he decided to pay to have the space changed into something different, said Alta Markeson, executive development director for the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.
“He knew the views from the space were unparalleled, that to have no public windows would be wasting the space,” Markeson said. “He paid to have the brick removed and the room remodeled.”
Markeson said after Tanner gave the initial money to remodel the room, he has continued to give money to maintain the room and update it with new features. Tanner dedicated the room to the “young people of the West” in memory of his three sons, with the desire of making one of the most beautiful rooms in the West, Markeson.
“I think the room is special,” Markeson said. “The views are hard to beat. We work to keep the room a beautiful, wonderful room that would be worthy of Mr. Tanner.”
Markeson said the room is frequently used for meetings and classes, but the room is not readily available for students to visit whenever they would like because the elevator opens right into the room. However, if students do get the opportunity to visit the room, Markeson said their first reaction will be awe.
“People are always first amazed by the spectacular views of the valley,” Markeson said. “This is an extraordinary room.”
The Hatch Room
To experience a piece of history and culture in the Merril-Cazier Library without so much as cracking a book, students need not search farther than the Hatch Room, located in the Special Collections and Archives section of the library.
According to information released by special collections, L. Boyd and Anne McQuarrie Hatch donated the contents of the Hatch room to USU, then the Utah State Agricultural College, in 1952, including pieces they acquired from the collections of William Randolph Hearst, Davanzati Palace and the Charles of London collection. They agreed to donate the items as long as the university could find funding to renovate a library room in the Merrill Library.
Louis L. Madsen, president of USAC, said at the opening of the Hatch Room, the room would be the “best expression of our cultural heritage.”
“Here the student of today and tomorrow may come to work in the intimacy of artistic beauty. He may use books 600 years old, as wells as great books of our own era. He may study first hand the oil painting of an old master. He may sit and dream at a table at which King Henry VIII himself may well have sat. It will be a spiritual and cultural haven in our busy world,” Madsen said.
According to special collections, the Hatch Room moved from the old library to the new one in 2003. The room was recreated in the new library with the same layout originally designed in 1953. The room can be accessed by students through the special collections room. The Ella Gardner McQuarrie book collection originally stored in the room is now stored in climate-controlled conditions but may be requested for study.
The Caine Room
A room containing Waterford lamps, chandeliers, Victorian chairs and a grand piano doesn’t sound like it could be found on a college campus, but USU’s Caine Room contains all of this and more.
The renovation of the room to what it is today was provided Kathryn Caine Wanlass, who suggested the general theme and name for the room, but the actual design was left up to the interior design department, said Elizabeth Rogers, interior designer of the room and retired interior design professor.
“(Wanlass) suggested the general style and colors to be used, and she also requested that the room be named for members of the Caine family. Her grandfather and father had been active in the growth of USU in the areas of administration and dairy science,” Rogers said.
Rogers said the dean of interior design at the time of the renovation, Bonita Wyse, stipulated the room had to be used for certain objectives, including a teaching laboratory for interior design students, a reception place for university events and a place to house some of the collections from the college of family life. Wanlass requested French furniture be used, and the color be celadon, which is a pale tint of green. The original molding on the walls and ceilings were retained, and the original flooring was exposed and refinished.
“The Caine Room has been used for many elegant university events, including graduation teas,” Rogers said. “The room continues to be used today as a teaching laboratory for interior design students.”
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chairs that furnish the room.
art hung on a wall. This room is typically used for meetings and private luncheons. O. C. Tanner dedicated this room to the “young people of the West” in memory of his three sons, with the desire of making it one of the most beautiful rooms in the West.
The Hatch room is in the library archives and the contents include pieces acquired from the collections of William Randolph Hearst, Davanzati Palace and the Charles of London collection.