Romney Hall on Montana State University's campus celebrated its 100th birthday on Tuesday. After reopening in November after renovations, the MSU Alumni Association is ready to celebrate this historic landmark.
“It is a pride of our campus. There's no question about that,” says Kerry Hanson of the MSU Alumni Association.
Romney Hall is one of the oldest buildings on MSU's campus. After the recent renovations, it is no longer used as a gym but has become one of the school's major academic buildings.
“For about 10 years Montana State rallied to try to rejuvenate Romney Hall; it went from 141 classroom seats to now over 1000 seats," says Hanson.
The hall holds many memories for the people of MSU. It was where the Golden Bobcats won the 1928-29 Men's National Championship in Basketball and housed the commencement ceremonies until the mid-1950s. With around $32 million in funding, the building was renovated but has still kept a lot of its old charm.
“One of the cool things in there if you've not been in there yet, is that you can in the watershed, Cusato auditorium that's in there as well," says Hanson, "It's a large classroom and in that building was left a big circle. I'm not sure the sacrum friends but it is the original basketball floor that was in there. So it's part of the classroom.”
The opportunity to celebrate anything being open 100 years does not come often, and the MSU Alumni Foundation is hosting a celebration Tuesday.
Hanson says, “We’re excited, we have a great turnout for the celebration tomorrow, and we'll be recognizing, you know, of course Romney will be having birthday cake. And again, it's just an opportunity to celebrate 100 years of this iconic building on our campus.”
