With mounting overcrowding in Corona Hall, construction was begun on Clare Hall in 1956. Because of the great need and even though it was barely finished, it opened its doors to juniors and seniors in January 1957.
Here is an Alverno Campus News photo from the February 1957 issue taken shortly after Clare Hall opened. Students can be seen frolicking in the snow adjacent to the carport which still stands today.
"Garbed for the snowy day, these girls on the west side of the dorms stand at the carport and the lobby that connects Corona with the new Clare Hall. Left to right are Janet Kessenich, Margaret Gazdik, Marilyn Zirngibl, Joan Nuti, Margo Penney, Sharon Kolarec, Mary Grow Mary Therese Kelly, Francette Hamilton, Ann O'Conner and Suzann Weekly."
Here is an exterior shot of Clare Hall taken in about 1977 which also includes the carport.
Clare Hall was built to mirror Corona Hall. It also included a first floor lounge area. In later years the space was used for meetings. Below are a couple of photos from the first Conference of Women Theologians held at Alverno in that space in June 1971.
As in Corona Hall, there are now classrooms in what used to be the Clare lounge area.
For a time, after 1977 until 1993 rooms on the first floor of Clare Hall were reserved for Weekend College students who came to campus every other weekend from out of town. The first floor resident rooms are now faculty and staff offices. These newer photos were taken in fall 2018.
This is the current entrance to Clare Hall from the Fish Bowl Lobby.
A Clare Hall classroom created out of space that was once a lounge area.
At the end of the first floor hallway, there used to be a chapel, the Sacred Heart Chapel. This article from Alverno Campus News describes the consecration of the chapel's new altar by then Bishop Roman Atkielski on May 8, 1958.
The space once occupied by the Sacred Heart Chapel is now the home of Alverno's Research Center for Women and Girls (RCWG). Remnants of the chapel in the form of stained glass windows and exterior architectural features remain.
Resident rooms in Clare Hall used to look very similar to this one found in Corona Hall.
Sometime after the construction of Austin Hall and with a dwindling resident student population, the second, third, and fourth floors of Clare Hall became home to some of the Sisters who worked on campus. In 2008, the last of these resident sisters moved out and because of a growing need for resident student housing once again, these spaces were updated and renovated as described and pictured in an article from the Summer 2008 issue of Alverno Magazine.
