The Record, May 17, 1928

Dedication day on May 10, marking the opening of the new Auditorium-Music Conservatory, was one of May's fairest and drew hundreds of visitors an guests from their homes to be present at the exercise. Promptly at 1:30 in the afternoon the Student Band marched out to the campus, halting at the new flag-pole. There the flag was raised aloft by the donor of its support, and as it rose the Rt. Rev. President, Abbot ALcuin Deutsch, OSB, blessed it. Three rousing cheers by the students followed and thereupon the bad played the Star Spangled Banner while all stood at attention.

The Auditorium was then the objective where the band gave a brief concert, followed by the blessing of the building by the Rt. Rev. President. In his address he welcomed the assembled guests and visitors, and pointed out the particular niche which the new building was destined to fill in the realm of Christian education. Although amusement of a wholesome kind was not foreign to the purpose of its erection, he explained, it is made subservient to a higher aim, the larger educational interests of culture and the fine arts.

The Rt. Rev. Joseph F. Busch, D.D., spoke on the influence the new structure and its high purpose would exert on the students, especially on the point of self-forgetfulness through cooperation with others is taking part in the musical, dramatic, oratorical, and poetic presentations. He indicated, moreover, that the monks of Saint John's Abbey were justified in an effort which might appear greater than necessary; for it is only a matter of time when Saint John's will present a well-balanced and architecturally unified whole.

The University Orchestra, under the direction of Innocent Gertken, OSB, and the Monastery Choir, directed by Norbert, Gertken, OSB, presented a concert to commemorate the centenary of Franz Schubert, noted Catholic composer....As the audience filed out at the conclusion of the Schubert program many expressions of approbation of the work of the musicians at Saint John's were overheard.

The time between the concert and the dinner, and thereafter, was well occupied by the visitors in looking over the various quarters of the new building--the high and well-appointed stage, the sound-proof music practice, ensemble, and the directors rooms, and the grilled spaces for the organ, to come some time in the future.

At 5 p.m. on Thursday as well as Sunday at the Alumni Dedication, dinner was served in the students' refectory, where "the famous hospitality for which the community at Collegeville is noted," as one reporter for the press put it, "was much in evidence."