Faculty Staff Club

(formerly the Cafeteria and Bookstore)

Designed to appear like a small country cottage, the Faculty-Staff Club (originally called the Aztec Cafe and Bookstore) was the first addition to the original campus buildings in 1932. Designed by Howard Spencer Hazen in the Mission Revival architectural style, the one-story building's original intent was to house student government and to provide a lounge and cafeteria for students.

Prior to its completion, an old construction hut served as the campus cafe, but it offered only light lunches and a soda fountain. The new cafeteria, or "the Caf" as it was called, had a seating capacity of 125 and served more than 800 people a day. A small room in the building was reserved for faculty even at this early date.

The centrally located cafeteria building also served as the first campus bookstore until the state attorney general ruled in 1932 that campus-based bookstores were illegal, and it was forced to move off campus. The following year, the legislature authorized that student-owned bookstores could be located on college campuses, and the now-nonprofit bookstore returned to its on-campus cottage.

The cafeteria building had been designed to serve 1,200 students. By 1947, enrollment swelled to 4,376, straining the cafe and bookstore's ability to serve the campus community. In the 1950s, the bookstore was moved temporarily to a Quonset hut in the Quad, and a walled patio was added to the cafeteria building to serve hamburgers al fresco. East Commons was built in the late 1950s, providing more dining alternatives for students and easing the demands on the Caf.

In 1976, the cafeteria building was remodeled and renamed the Faculty Staff Club. Members of the university community, friends, and guests can enjoy breakfast, lunch, or coffee at the club or reserve a room for meetings, receptions, and parties.