Kittredge Hall at the University of Puget Sound (UPS), home to the Art Department and Kittredge Art Gallery, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. From 1943 to 1944, long before it was home to the Art Department, Kittredge housed the Army Specialized Training Unit. Two hundred and thirty-eight young soldiers arrived on campus Dec. 6, 1943, all of whom had lived east of the Hudson River. According to former UPS President R. Franklin Thompson, who wrote extensive histories of the college, the Army apparently wanted to station units geographically as far away as possible in order to discourage the idea of soldiers going home over the weekends and to make the men independent in their own right.

The brand new Kittredge Hall was the center of student life at that time. It was home to the student union building, complete with sorority meeting rooms and a soda fountain. By late 1943, Kittredge was also the residence for Army engineers in training, who in March 1944, having barely settled in for classes, were commissioned. They were told they would not go into the infantry, and instead ended up on the front lines in the Battle of the Bulge. Twenty-five were killed. All 238 were made honorary alumni, and a plaque was placed at the entrance to Kittredge Hall in their memory.

During the next 15 years, helped by the GI Bill, student numbers grew at the college, and Kittredge Hall became home to The Trail newspaper, the yearbook and dining services. Then, in 1960, with the construction of a new, larger student union building, Kittredge became home to the Art Department and Kittredge Gallery.

During the 2016-17 academic year, UPS will celebrate the remarkable history of Kittredge Hall, (groundbreaking January, 1942). The year will include special exhibitions, art lectures, receptions for those historically close to Kittredge, and an art history colloquium.

"Kittredge Hall has been and remains a rich space of memory for Puget Sound students and the campus community," said Linda Williams, professor of art history and one of the anniversary organizers. "This celebratory year will include events that focus on the first eighteen years of the building as a home for the student union and its fifty-six years as the art department, with our wonderful Kittredge art gallery."

Special exhibitions include:

"Bill Colby Retrospective": Aug. 29-Sept. 24, with an artist's talk at the opening reception Wednesday, Aug. 31, 5 to 7 p.m.

"Past and Present Faculty Exhibition": Oct. 3-Nov. 5, showing works by faculty members from the 1930s through the present.

"Alumni Exhibition" and "Art History Colloquium": Jan. 17-Feb. 18. The Art History Colloquium will run Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, Jan. 28, with an opening reception Jan. 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. The keynote speaker will be Carolyn Dean, professor, history of art and visual culture, at University of California, Santa Cruz.