The college’s first and only on-campus bar opened in Hewitt Union as the Rathskellar. Students were charged with converting the former post office and storage space.

“It was quite a project,” remembers Mark Wahl ’74, who designed and built the hangout as an industrial arts major. The Tavern included multiple levels, professional-grade stage and sound, murals and, of course, the bar.

“We actually went out and tore down some barns,” to get the wood, says Wahl, who went on to a career in designing and building as a contractor.

The Tavern thrived into the mid-1980s, when the legal drinking age was upped from 18 to 21. The space became Timepieces, an alcohol-free pizza joint, in 1986. Students also migrated to the Ozone dance club, in a different corner of Hewitt Union. It closed shortly after the Campus Center opened in 2007.