After two years of extensive construction as one of the pioneer buildings on the CiuP campus, the Fondation des Etats-Unis held its opening ceremony on April 28, 1930.
The Cité internationale universitaire de Paris was created in the years immediately following the First World War as a means to promote peace and understanding among students coming from all corners of the world to pursue their studies in Paris. During the first phase of construction which extended until 1937, 19 houses of different nationalities were erected, along with the Maison Internationale, a generous gift from John D. Rockeller Jr, housing several meeting halls and cultural and administrative services.
A young resident in the newly-erected Fondation des Etats-Unis
The Fondation des Etats-Unis, designed by the French architect Pierre Leprince-Ringuet, was financed by American surgeon Homer Gage and the Friends of the Fondation des Etats-Unis. The Fondation was inaugurated on April 28, 1930 in the presence of Mr. Gage, the Ambassador to the Unites States of America, Walter E. Edge, and Gaston Doumergue, President of the French Republic.
The official opening ceremony of the Fondation des Etats-Unis, April 28, 1930
Today, the Fondation des Etats-Unis remains one of the largest and oldest residences on the Cité universitaire campus, along with the Fondation Biermans Lapôtre (219 rooms, inaugurated in 1927), the Fondation Franco-Britannique (approximately 260 rooms, inaugurated in 1937), the Fondation Deutsch de La Meurthe (collection of six buildings with over 320 lodgings, inaugurated in 1925) and the Maison de Provinces de France (approximately 383 rooms, inaugurated in 1933).