I had a travel day today, up to Omaha for Annie’s baptism on Saturday, so I’m a bit tired. I promise I’ll get back to that picture showing the old stadium next week but I can’t find what I need to do it now. Instead, let’s have a look at another picture from the same series. This one is a really nice view of the academic quad from just in front of Lovett Hall, nearly straight down:
See the area just to the west of the Physics Building, where Anderson Hall is today? You can tell here that they were growing something there. A bit surprisingly, it was roses, which were carefully tended by Rice’s gardener, Tony Martino. There aren’t many pictures of this garden, so I was happy to find this one. Here’s another, taken at ground level:
I’m certainly not a gardener, but I would think it might be tricky to grow roses in Houston.
One other thing captured my attention in the first picture: the cowpaths. Even without zooming in it’s easy to see the big one going from the dorms to Lovett Hall, but if you click in and take a closer look you’ll notice that there’s a smaller one going out from Lovett and curving around the west side of the Physics Building. That one was certainly made by students (and surely faculty as well) cutting off the corner on their way to the Mech Lab and Chemistry.
I confess that this made me laugh when I first saw it. It’s the exact opposite of the cowpath that runs in that part of the quad today–if they met, they’d make an “X.” Here it is, visible on Google Maps:
This suggests something about human nature, I think.
Bonus: I like to know what’s expected of me.
Who knows where this is?
Not to harp on Melissa’s favorite subject, but notice how much smaller the Italian Cypress trees are in the back half of the quad when compared to the ones in the front. It almost implies that they grow!
We have seen the trees in a multitude of poses. I believe the trees in the back half have hidden partially underground in yet another new pose. Probably some sort of arboreal hide and seek going on.
They grow in theory.
Speaking of trees, I was interested in the triple row of oaks on both sides of what is now the quad behind the library. Is it the case that only one of those rows on each side survived the construction of the late ’50s and beyond?
Actually roses are not too hard to grow in Houston. The main problem is mildew, and the cure we sometimes use today was available then. A little Clorox in water with a bit of soap.
“DO NOT PUT EMPTY BOTTLES …
Perhaps behind protective screens in all the male dorm rooms?
I knew a student in a year following mine , who became a famous and revered (?sp) Rice Prof., who should have had a sign reading, “DO NOT MAKE EXPLOSIVE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN THIS ROOM”.
And another whose sign should have read, “PLEASE DO NOT PUT SODIUM IN THE TOILETS”.
Another rose garden photo …
http://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/12820