Poof! 1947

Not long ago it occurred to me that I might be able to get a different look at that frame building behind the Physics Building that housed Rice’s first nuclear accelerator if I looked carefully at the construction photos of Anderson Hall. I was kind of right. You can just see it here at the top left, unfortunately mostly hidden behind some hedges:

I’d never spent much time with these images so I was surprised and enchanted to see something else–the slow disappearance of the wide view of the front of the Chemistry Building. You can actually watch it happen. Here’s Progress Photo #1, taken November 6, 1946:

And Progress Photo #10, from February 1947:

And finally this one almost exactly one year after the first:

Just for fun here’s one looking the other direction:

It seems to have been a rough year for the Italian cypresses.

Bonus:

 

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3 Responses to Poof! 1947

  1. Keith Cooper says:

    The first photo also shows a good view of what, I presume, is the steam tunnel that flows into Anderson Hall.

  2. Mike G. says:

    11/4/47 photo appears to be before the “frogs” were installed around the entry of Anderson…

  3. George Webb '88, '91 says:

    Most readers will realize that the last photo spells out “RICE”, but the astute will observe two additional features: (1) each expression resolves not merely to the corresponding letter, but specifically to the capital letter; and (2) the four expressions represent the four classical disciplines of engineering.

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