Time capsule: How did CMCers feed their appetites back in 1948? When Collins was closed, everybody went to The Hub
Long before CMC Magazine or CMC Forum, there was The Analyst, a student publication with a name fitting for a new college founded on the bedrock of economic and political analysis.
As a coda to this issue of CMC Magazine, which is largely devoted to fundraising and philanthropic support, we thought it would be a nice idea to look back nearly 70 years to one of the College’s earliest internal development efforts: creating a snack and social spot on campus. What was the cost of such a project back in 1948? $500. As Kevin Starr explains, in his history, Commerce and Civilization—Claremont McKenna College: The First Fifty Years—1946-1996:
In the spring of 1948, the student council allocated $500 toward the opening of a social center, a soda fountain and bookstore called the Hub. Located in a wing of a former Army mess hall south of Story House, the Hub was developed by undergraduates Robert Chapman, Bud Craton, and Sam Bader. It remained a functioning entity, in various locales, for fifty years. The Hub also sponsored bridge tournaments for ‘bridge-mad Scripps girls,’ according to The Analyst for 6 October 1948.
Along with bridge tournaments, The Hub also provided undergrads with a place to spend their small change on a “three o’clock coke or the eleven o’clock hamburger.” For more early glimpses of The Analyst, see the CMC Forum five-part series.