orn conventions in the design
and have made it peculiarly an expression, in its whole conception as
well as in its finest details, of a distinctly American spirit. A
suggestion of the English collegiate Gothic style in its larger forms
was deliberately chosen as typifying the fundamental source of our
institutions; but in the general treatment, particularly in the simple,
modern, truly American masses and details, which are everywhere full of
a refined and delicate symbolism, the building is an interpretation of
the underlying spirit of American Democracy. That the architects have
been successful no one can deny who has seen the Union and has felt the
rugged beauty of its central tower, which became at once the striking
feature of Ann Arbor's skyline.

The building is necessarily large; it is 168 feet in all across the
front and 233 feet deep, with four stories, a basement, and
sub-basement. In addition to other usual facilities of a large club, it
contains a swimming pool (not completed in 1920), a bowling alley, an
immensely popular cafeteria for men, known as the Tap-Room, a woman's
dining-room with a separate entrance, a billiard room, with twenty-five
tables, a large banquet and assembly hall, 58 by 104 feet, for dinners,
dances, and large gatherings, besides innumerable smaller rooms which
can be used either for dinners or for class and society meetings. There
are in fact dining-room accommodations for over 1,200 guests at one
time. Offices and various headquarters for campus organizations are also
included as well as one feature particularly welcome to alumni, some 48
sleeping rooms accommodating 69 visitors.

Thus the Union has realized its ideals. While the success of the Union
is due to the continued and self-sacrificing efforts of hundreds of
Michigan men, students and alumni alike, special recognition will always
be due Dean Henry M. Bates, '90, of the Law School, whose strong support
and practical idealism as a member of the Board of Directors from the
very earliest days carried the project through many dark periods, as
well as to the energy and enthusiasm of Homer Heath, '07, manager of the
Union Building from the first, to whom is due in no small degree the
successful outcome of the campaign for the building, and its final
completion.

The control of the Union is vested in two organizations; a Board of
Directors composed of students, Faculty representatives, and alumni,
which has in general the supervi