Someone sent me a fantastic batch of photographs yesterday and I’ve been poring over them this afternoon. They’re from the late 1950s (I feel comfortable calling them late 1957) and they are remarkably sharp images. This first one is a real beauty. We can see the back of Anderson Hall before the addition and the original front of Fondren. Note that the road through the Quad is gone but the piece of it to the north is still there. That road has been discussed here before–it curved around the Chemistry Building and provided access to some parking:
The next one too is full of information, starting with where all that smoke was coming from. Interestingly, that spot or quite near it seems to have been used as a dump or burn pile for a long time. I’ve seen a good number of pictures wherein the general area was smoldering.
Also, if you zoom in you can see the pine tree nestled next to Geology that seems to have been there from the beginning of time (and which remains still). It’s the state of construction on the new buildings, by the way, that leads me to believe these images were made in either late 1957 or early 1958:
And here’s a glorious view, the best I’ve ever seen, of the parking lot that used to be where Duncan Hall is today:
The burning question is this: where were these taken from? Too low to be an airplane, too high to be the roof of Abercrombie, and we didn’t have drones then. The answer according to my informant is that they were taken from here, atop an antenna tower behind Abercrombie:
These rascals are indeed pretty high up. They are Bill Sick (trustee emeritus!), Phil Deck, William (Rusty) Rolston, and Millard (Mac) McDonald, all class of 1957 EE majors. And who took their picture? C. Sidney Burrus, also EE ’57:
When asked why they were on top of tower in the first place he replied “Because we were not supposed to be.”
I heartily endorse this sentiment.