DAYTON — When plans for a new NCR Corp. headquarters building were first unveiled in September 1974, William Anderson, then the company’s president and chairman, said the plans demonstrated the company’s commitment to Dayton.

“This program confirms NCR’s previously stated intentions of retaining its world headquarters in Dayton,” Anderson told the (Dayton) Journal Herald.

At the time, the new headquarters were to replace what was known as Building 10, a 67-year-old, 12-floor building on South Main St. (That building has been razed.)

Originally slated to be a $10 million, 255,000-square-foot structure, the new building was to be built in a tree-ringed clearing often used by University of Dayton football players for practice.

Today, NCR is all but gone, having moved its headquarters to the Atlanta area, but UD is still in the picture, only this time, the university will use the property for much more than football practice. UD intends to use the now 457,000-square-foot building for its research institute, a proposed alumni center, graduate classes and more.

The winged structure was built across a lagoon from Carillon Park — requiring the construction of a bridge — facing motorists where Patterson and Carillon boulevards met. Some 1,000 employees were expected to work there, in administrative, financial, legal, industrial relations and some research functions.

The new building was dedicated in November 1976.

In June 2009, NCR announced it was pulling its headquarters to Georgia. By October, UD officials acknowledged they were in talks with NCR to buy the building. A few days before Christmas, the university’s purchase of the building and its 115 acres for $18 million was announced.