Ferris Booth Hall

Ferris Booth Hall in front of Carman ca. 1970ish

The predecessor to Alfred Lerner Hall, Ferris Booth Hall boasted magnificent campus views, a grand entry hall staircase, six-lane bowling alley, fifty-foot rifle range, billiards room, and in the Hewitt Lounge, an open-sided fireplace. Completed in 1960 from a design by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates, it was razed in 1996.

Ferris Booth also featured an outdoor terrace that hosted numerous bands. The Grateful Dead played Ferris Booth following the 1968 Strike.

Lerner Hall has none of these amenities. Instead it has ramps.

Citizenship Center

President Eisenhower first proposed, but never seriously pursued, creating a "Citizenship Center" where students would develop "a greater sense of obligation and responsibility to the community". The "Citizenship Center" would be partially staffed by military officers and host a rifle range to teach students how to shoot and kill Communists. As recently as 1960, a rifle range existed under Philosophy Hall. The mission of Columbia's student centers since then has backed off from the second half of Eisenhower's plan, but still tries to uphold the first half, as exemplified in the Double Discovery Center.