I had occasion yesterday to return to the sleeves full of slides that long time biology professor Joseph Davies took on campus over several decades. Someone asked me the other day if I could bring back one person from Rice’s history and have a beer with them, who would I choose. I’m not ready to be pinned down on this just yet, but my instinct would be to pick Davies. He is deeply intriguing to me and I suspect that he’d give out the straight scoop about things. This is my favorite picture of him–he’s second from the left, the guy with the huge grin on his face:
Anyway, here are a couple of fantastic images taken looking out towards what must have still been the new football stadium. Davies took this first one standing to the side of where the architecture building is today. That’s the steps at the Chem Lecture Hall behind the trees on the right. It’s interesting that those trees, which are simply enormous now, were already big. Note also the high hedge on the right beyond Chemistry. You can’t really tell from this picture but it went off all the way to Rice Boulevard on the diagonal:
This next one was right beside the first in the sleeve. My first reaction was that the parking lot must be roughly what we currently call the North Lot Annex, but, as usual, nothing is ever that simple. Joseph Davies died in 1966 and there wasn’t a North Lot Annex until long after that. (Don’t ask when. I don’t currently know.)
So where is this? Check out these two aerials–the first is dated July 3, 1956. See the diagonal hedge?
This next photo is also dated 1956, but it must have been taken later in the year. The angle is obviously different but if you find the hedge and follow it towards Rice Boulevard, I think that’s our parking lot:
If it isn’t, I give up.