When C-Haus, Beloit’s campus bar, was forced to close due to COVID, the rising seniors realized that C-Haus may be left to a future generation that has not even experienced a night in Beloit’s local bar (before the pandemic, C-Haus had been closed, in part, for renovations).

Frank McKern, Sarah Grisson, and other upperclassmen took this opportunity to create new ways to preserve the memory of the events and activities that C-Haus once provided. With the help of Julia Hwang, a Museum Studies minor, they hope to research and write about that history and create an exhibit that will display their findings on the walls of the building.

C-Haus has its own archives, which include photos, posters, drum sticks, signatures, and band setlists that all recall the world that generations of students have usually been immersed in every weekend. By creating a specific space for that history, we hope to show the incoming students what the space should be and what it once looked like.

Many alumni and current upperclassmen know what C-Haus was and is, what that place meant, the safety that it provided, and we all find it important that this history and feeling should not be lost. These displays will provide that for the generations to come and those who will be rebuilding this bar. We hope that our work to preserve and curate this piece of history will be the foundation for a vibrant social life on campus after COVID.