Stepan Center is a multi-purpose geodesic dome built in 1962 at the University of Notre Dame, and is located on the northeast corner of campus. The $350,000 to build Stepan Center was donated to the university by Alfred Stepan, the founder of Stepan Company, and his wife, Mary Louise. The facility, which was one of the first geodesic dome built in the United States, has 21,000 square feet (2,000 m2) of floor space. With its brick base, gold-anodized aluminum dome and silver ceiling, the center attracted widespread attention at its opening, according to a 2022 Notre Dame Magazine article.On October 18, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Stepan Center, in an event organized the South Bend Citizens’ Civic Planning Committee as a fundraiser for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.