Some interesting photographs turned up in the papers of Ray Watkin Hoagland Strange ’36, recently. In them, we see Ray on a visit to campus two years after her graduation in the company of some of her co-workers. I was frankly astonished to learn that she worked for several years for a major oil company, mostly because I can’t quite imagine her having a boss. In any event, there’s Ray sitting by the fountain at Cohen House with a great view of the fancy terrace furniture:
My instant reaction to this next image is that it was taken by someone standing in the middle doorway of the Physics building. (And while we’re looking around, look at the size of that tree! How did that happen?)
When I went and stood in that middle doorway, though, I saw something surprising. The changes in the shrubbery are about what I expected but there’s no sidewalk coming out from the doorway towards the middle of the quad.
Hmmm.
A quick perusal of some random aerial shots cleared this up, mostly. Where there are now two sidewalks coming off the front of Physics, there were for many years three. Here’s one example, a photo taken near the beginning of the second wave of building after World War II—construction of the Geology Building is well underway. Zoom in and you can clearly see the three lines from Physics:
I don’t know when that middle walk went away but I don’t have time to figure it out right now. I have a new granddaughter about to be born in Oregon and I’ve got to get up there!
Bonus: