After more than ten years of meeting in various locations on the NMSU campus, the Newman Club went looking for a permanent home. The two-story brick building at 414 W. Dodson was chosen for its size and location and purchased in 1967. The stucco on the outside began to fall off and the building was sided in 1978. This facility featured a large common room, a kitchen, and office for the director, a lounge, and a chaplain’s apartment that was later converted into a small chapel and a student apartment. For more than twenty years this building served the needs of the Newman community, but it slowly fell into a state of disrepair. Irreparable defects in the building, which was cold in winter and hot in summer and leaked rain in several places, often soaking valuable office equipment, forced Newman to decide in the 1986-1987 academic year to build a new facility. Fr. Leslie Niemeyer, then Newman Director, secured the permission of the Bishop, Michael McAuliffe, STD, to begin raising the necessary funds.