Now that commencement is over they’re set to demolish the Third Gate, or at least its eastern half, in order to manage the traffic flow out of the new parking garage behind Allen Center:
That gate has been here for a very long time. You can see it in the upper right corner in this classic image from Rice’s Formal Opening in October 1912. Quite reasonably, no one in 1912 anticipated that there would one day be a nasty multi-lane intersection at this spot whose negotiation would require more lanes coming off campus:
As the gate closest to the first dorms it naturally attracted the attention of our high-spirited early students. This was called “gate sitting” and that pretty much covers it. Sometimes it was used as a form of mild hazing, other times they seem to have done it just for a lark. This must have been taken in 1916:
Bonus: Let me tell you this–it’s a lot higher than it looks from the ground. I’ll have a bit more about Gate Number 3 tomorrow.
