Catt Hall’s newly-restored stairs shone in the midday sun, almost as if they knew it was the 20th anniversary of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at ISU.

Many gathered in front of the renovated hall to honor Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the fight to earn women’s right to vote.

A reception on Sunday, Sept. 23, celebrated the women’s rights activist. Kicking off the event was Diane Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center. She introduced the main speaker, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1993-97, Elizabeth Hoffman.  

Also a former senior vice president and provost of Iowa State, Hoffman spoke of Catt’s many contributions to women’s rights and gave a brief history as to how the hall was named after such an astonishing woman.

Chapman Catt was born in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State. She served as valedictorian and the only woman in the 1880 class. After graduating, she went on to become president of National American Women’s Suffrage Association, succeeding the legendary Susan B. Anthony.

Women have Catt to thank for largely partaking in the construction of the 19th Amendment.

Once known as Old Botany, Catt Hall was almost demolished because of horrible conditions.

“The building had floors that buckled so badly from years of disuse that you couldn’t go in without a hard hat and safety escort,” Hoffman said. Hoffman and other proactive women petitioned ISU President Martin Jischke to save the building and have it named after Chapman Catt.

A distinguishable trait of Catt Hall is its floor of named bricks titled the Plaza of Heroines. More than 3,600 bricks are dedicated to women who have made impacts on community and society as role models. Hoffman’s brick is located slightly downward and to the left of the steps.

Along with the bricks, the steps, the balcony and just about every room possible in the hall were named in order to pay for the renovations. Restorations were approved by the Iowa Board of Regents on Sept. 3, 1992.

During the first week of October in 1994, Central Campus played home to a Chautauqua with plays, concerts and speeches. That Friday was to be the official opening of the center. Red, white and blue banners painted the outside of the hall.

Twenty years later, Catt Hall serves as a fantastic center of programs to promote civic engagement and participation in community leadership. Leadership recognition and development programs and many resources on women and politics are offered, as well.  Scholarships are awarded through the Legacy of Heroines.

The League of Women Voters exhibits an important role in the journey of Catt Hall. Jan Beran, 1992 president of the league, and Linda Murken, 2012 president, staged a booth Monday, Sept. 24, to encourage all to vote.  They will return on Tuesday, Sept. 25, which is National Voter Registration Day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Memorial Union near the bookstore, in Curtiss Hall and near the library.

If Bystrom could say anything to Chapman Catt, she said it would be: “Thank you for spending 33 years of your life so women today could have the right to vote. I really feel like she was the unsung hero. She really put together the final strategy to get women the right to vote. There’s no excuse for people not voting, especially women, when someone has spent that much of their life getting this right for people or, what I would say, responsibility.”