The research team in acoustics at Ecole centrale de Lyon was created 50 years ago by Prof. Geneviève Comte-Bellot. In this paper we describe the growth of this team, known now as the Acoustic center (or Centre Acoustique in French), from the early 70s to today. The evolution of the research interests and of the experimental facilities are emphasized, and a selection of ”historical” references is given at the end of the paper. The main current research topics are also listed and illustrated, completed by a partial list of recent references.