Colour photograph of the Founders' Building and surrounding gardens at International House
The Founders’ Building at International House, January 2005.

When did the Founders’ Building open?

Built on the site of the old International House squash court, the building we know as Founders’ was completed in November 2004 and opened on 11 February 2005 (Larkins, 2018, 165).1 But the building wasn’t yet called Founders’; instead it was simply the ‘New Building’ (Munro, 2008, 3).

Postcard promoting the Founders’ Building (then known as the ‘New Building’) at International House, 2005. International House Archives.

The building was named in 2008, after the International House Council decided to choose a name that would ‘recognise the many people who had played a significant role in enabling the vision for an International House to be realised’ (Larkins, 2018, 165). On 24 May 2008, the building was officially named the ‘Founders’ Building’ by Jenny Macklin, the Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, who had been a resident at IH from 1972 to 1975.

Jenny Macklin (Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs), Pamela Tham (Student Club President, 2008-2009), Saw Xiao Rei (Student Club President, 2007-2008), Jane Munro (Head of College) and Glyn Davis (Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne) at the naming of the Founders’ Building on 24 May 2008.

References

Larkins, F. (2018). International House Melbourne: Sixty years of fraternitas. Melbourne University Publishing.

Munro, J. (2008). From the Head of College. Fraternitas. International House, The University of Melbourne, 2-3.

  1. A grammatical note: here we have included an apostrophe in the name of building to reflect the plaque at the building’s entrance. Not all sources include the apostrophe. ↩