Wow! Check this beauty out:
It appeared in the first issue of the Thresher of the 1944 school year. To my great delight it is full of things I don’t know anything about.
Already, though, I’ve found one thing–a 1946 ad for the bowling alley across Main from the Fieldhouse. I haven’t been able to locate any information about this but I wonder if it later became the Palace Lanes on Bellaire.
Bonus: Just for fun here’s the very handsome masthead of the Thresher in 1944. Zoom in and look at those owls.
Something tells me that you are going to be looking more closely at the west end of campus during the WWII period…
The 1944 aerial photo on Google Earth might be useful. I can’t get Google Earth to load up on my computer for some reason …
Here’s the 1944 Google Earth image. http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r108/marmer01/Rice_GE_1944_zps07b2aed4.jpg
Annddd… here it is with modern road labels and sidewalks turned off for better viewing.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r108/marmer01/Rice_44_noroads_zps44c5ddd2.jpg
Are those groups of three trees on the NW side of campus, Mr. Bushmiller?
The bowling palace looked pretty cool. Wish it was still around. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1940s-50s-the-Recreation-Bowling-Palace-in-Houston-Tx-Texas-PC-/111183855296?nma=true&si=rM1hrCA6b3IzG40VsYmqGvI1fG4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
I never thought to look on ebay! Thanks!
Somehow, that postcard pic of the bowling alley does NOT seem quite right. It may be too close to the road. I seem to remember parking in front of that entrance.
The map is fascinating. I look forward to future posts based on this important find!
The 1956 Class discussed that map some on our website. Here is part of the verbiage:
Gene PRATT – Jul 30, 2013
Charley,
Thanks for your expertise in salvaging this drawing for our group.
Did you notice some of the names & comments the architect-artist added to his map?
‘The Blue Danube’ for that creek. I’m surprised he did NOT show the bridge over that waterway. Perhaps it was gone by ’44.
‘The Stables’: what was that? Does that winding road name have something to do with horses or riding?
The ‘? range’. Is that “rifle”?
The “? court”. Could that be handball?
That winding road, I could NOT decipher.
The stadium as the ‘ home of great football teams and Mr Hermance’.
Main St.: “town so near and yet so far”.
The bowling alley.
Mess Hall: ‘where the elite meet to eat’. [HA!]
Charles KOBERG – Jul 31, 2013
Close examination confirms that’s the rifle range and the
handball court, and the name of the winding road toward
the stables and around the cornfield is the Burma Road.
I remember a comment on the Historian’s blog [That’s you, Melissa — sn’t FAME wonderful?] that the stables housed mules, used for farm work. By this time, probably only the stables remained.
The draftsman signed as a member of the class of 1944;
this could have been drawn any time between 1940 and
1944.
With the “Burma Road” reference I would tend more to the 1943-1944. Although it was pre-war it probably did not come into general use (especially in this contect until 1942 so fall of 43 or 44 sounds likely
“Burma Road” has been used as a label for an obstacle course, especially in a sports context.