Monday, September 25, 2006

Nearly four decades after plans were made for it to become a cafeteria, Dining Services has moved into De Anza College’s historic winery.

It is scheduled to open today at 7 a.m., according to Campus Center Director, Patrick Gannon.

This is a temporary move while the Campus Center is being renovated. De Anza’s winery is a familiar spot to students who’ve been on campus for more than a year. It may be known to most students as the site of the old bookstore.

Crowds of students poured into the basement at the beginning of every quarter in search of textbooks. When the Student and Community Services opened in the fall of 2005, the bookstore was relocated there. The winery later became the temporary mail room.

The first issue of the De Anza College student newspaper (then known as “De Anza College Vistas”) published on Sept. 11, 1967, boasted of De Anza’s ambitious plans for the winery. According to the article, the winery was to include, a “coffee shop and bookstore, [which] will be connected by an underground tunnel to the multi-level Campus Center.”

Construction inside the winery as well as the building of underground tunnels was expected to be completed in February of 1968, according to the article.

In what appears to be a cost-saving measure, two letters in the bookstore sign have been changed to read “Foodstore.”