Cowan Dining Hall
Architects: Murphy and Mackey of St. Louis
Dates of Construction: 1960 - 1962
The Cowan Dining Hall was built to handle 650 students. This was needed to accommodate the students being moved from the old Women's Department campus located on Lexington Avenue to the Centre campus.
Cowan was named for Dr. J. Rice Cowan of Danville who died August 18, 1953. He had served as a member of Centre's board of trustees for 40 years, including 18 years as board chair.
When Cowan first opened in 1962 the college enforced a coat and tie standard of dress for evening meals. This requirement was soon dropped, although lunch and dinner continued to be seated meals, with breakfast served cafeteria-style until 1968, when cafeteria-style dining was adopted for all meals.