I dropped my laptop today and wrecked the screen. Seriously! It was time for a new one anyway but I didn’t have the happy-go-lucky afternoon I expected when the day dawned. Still, I perked up a bit when I came across this image of the front parking lot. It’s labeled 1959 and I’m prepared to believe it based on the cars, especially that nifty little one at right:
If the date is correct this would be very near the end of its useful existence as a parking lot. By the time Kenneth Pitzer was inaugurated out there in 1960 it was a lawn. I’ll show you a picture of that tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to get my new technology squared away.
Bonus: This is kind of how I feel.
Will be interested to see from the car experts on this site if the nifty one on the right is the great-great grandpappy of the 2002 Ford T-bird that I currently drive.
Are you also out standing in your field?
That’s a flashy new 1957 Buick Roadmaster Coupe on the far right, and a very frugal 1951-52 Studebaker Champion on the near left. Still working on the others, though there seems to be an early-mid 50s Oldsmobile on the front row mid-left. White license plates indicate ’57 or ’59.
There’s also a dark colored 1948-54 Chevy Advance Design pickup facing us next to the Oldsmobile (which might be a Pontiac.). I’m not seeing anything newer than that ’57 Buick, by the way, and several things that look early ’50s. (Are there parking registration records that go that far back? My guess is this is probably summer because there are comparatively few cars here.
The circular hedge in the middle appears to be surrounding some kind of stone or marker. What is it?
Here’s to you getting back on track.
.
Marwer01’s comment seems to substantiate my recollection (as commented in an earlier post) that I parked in front of Lovett as a freshman in 1956-57, but not as a soph. in 1857-58. If so, this post should be titled “Sallyport Parking Lot, 1957:.
I was about to say that the nifty little auto on the right was nifty, but far from little. That Roadmaster was a tank!
Melissa………
Mel says to check your dates…..the ‘spiffy’ car looks like a ’55 or ’56 to him……
Also……Mel graduated in 1961 [ Masters] and his diploma is signed by Carey Croneis [ sp??]……acting president or some such for 1 year…….my 1962 diploma was signed by Pitzer
Neither of us remember a parking lot…….beginning fall of 1958………but we don’t guarantee our ‘rememberers’…………..!!!!
How’s the new computer????
Susie
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When I was a junior and senior (don’t remember sophomore) the parking was along the sides of the green space. I graduated in 1962.
From left to right: 1951 Mercury, 1950-51 Studebaker, 1952 Buick, 1948-53 Chevrolet pickup (or GMC), 1957 Pontiac, possibly another 1950-51 Studebaker, 1955 Buick, 1953 Plymouth, 1955 Ford convertible. Behind the hedge is possibly a prewar sedan (1941 Ford?), another 1950-51 Studebaker, and possibly an early-50s station wagon. Then the 1957 Buick Roadmaster Coupe on the far right. There was a recession in ’57-’58 which harmed auto sales, which might be why we see so few newer cars.
Google Earth is no help, but Historic Aerials confirms that the lot was there in 1957 and gone in 1962. The hedge is enclosing a long, narrow, elliptical bit of grass dividing the parking lot in two halves.
AND that “stone” commented upon above by Hannes Hofer seems to have been an apparent unfilled part of the hedge.
(I also at first thought it to be a stone some-or-other.)
Saw a mention in a Thresher editorial in September 1959 of “a new parking lot at Lovett Hall surrounding a grass courtyard.”