In 1960, Dr. Arthur A. Hauck, a member of the American Council on Education [REF] and former president of the University of Maine, worked with the Ford Foundation to purchase the Meridian House from Gertrude Laughlin Chanler to serve as headquarters of a non-profit organization called the Washington International Center.
Four additional organizations joined the Center in 1961: the Foreign Student Service Council, the Governmental Affairs Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Institute of International Education.