Are you aware of the commonality between Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Linfield's Dillin Hall in McMinnville?
Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill (SOM) architectural firm designed both.
The coliseum opened Nov. 3,
1960. Dillin (originally called Linfield Commons) was dedicated Oct. 29, 1960.
Photos here show Linfield
Commons (later named Dillin Hall). Photo 1 was taken in 1965. Date when three
other photos of Linfield Commons taken unknown. Thanks to Linfield Archives for
these Linfield Commons photos. The three other photos at the bottom of this posting.
According to a plaque inside
the building, it was dedicated Oct. 29, 1960.
A story in the Nov. 1, 1960,
Oregon Statesman (morning daily newspaper of Salem, Ore.) during a Linfield
College homecoming banquet in the building on Sat., Oct. 29, 1960, "Dr.
Harry L. Dillin, Linfield president since 1943, was honored by his board of
trustees here Saturday night in the naming of the new $750,000 dining hall,
Harry Dillin Hall. Dr. Dillin received a standing ovation from 1,000 alumni and
friends at the homecoming banquet which initiated the new building."
At some point, the
building’s name came to honor both Dillin and his wife, Irene Hartman Dillin,
Linfield Class of 1939.
Photo of Portland Veterans
Memorial Coliseum "Courtesy Oregon Hist. Soc. Research Lib., Orhi90685” ...
photo appears in The Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of the Oregon Historical
Society. Photo is at top of this posting.
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