I actually went looking for other images of the west side of the Physics Building and I did find an interesting one. I’d guess this was taken at roughly the same time as the one from yesterday, maybe a tiny bit earlier, just looking the other way. Zoom in and you can see the interesting part: work being done along the side of the building. I don’t know what they’re doing there, maybe some kind of cleanup.
I did note the other day that there were various pipes and apparatus in the same vicinity as the wagon. I don’t know whether it was all there back this early or not.
I also thought I had seen a picture of the same spot in Pender Turnbull’s collection. When I went and looked, though, I discovered that I was mistaken. (!) Instead of the side of the building, the image I had in mind shows the back when it was under construction, 1913-14.
I think this is a really nice picture. It’s certainly unusual, one of only a few early ones taken on this side of the building. It has a lot of things in it that I really like–the newly planted cedar elms, the light pole, the girls, and,of course the umbrella.
Bonus: Sometimes I make mistakes, but sometimes I don’t. After I put up this picture the other day I kept thinking that there was something familiar about the RMC sign on the left.
I had a sense that I’d photographed it before somewhere else. (I take hundreds of pictures on campus every week.) I went looking and there it was, taken a couple of months ago over by the FE&P building. I’m not sure when it moved.
Did you realize your first photo has a date in the lower right corner? 9-1-14.
No, I did not! I was too busy looking at the guys by the side of the building.
That pipe is connected to a steam pop-off valve for the heating and domestic hot water systems in the basement. I vents outside to keep from filling the building with steam and to alert Facilities that too much steam is going to these devises. 60 psi of steam is delivered to each building from the power plant and lowered to about 7-14 psi for the building heat and domestic hot water systems.
Thanks, Larry. I should keep you on staff as a consultant!
Thanks for the pictures of the Physics Bld. I have a soft spot for it, even though I was a history major, because I met my wife in American History lectures there in 1965. There is an awful lot of non-academic history in these old buildings.
There appears to be construction activity all along the south side of the physics building. I count at least 4 wheelbarrows and a ladder.