Lower Campus

 

Arranged a walking tour of the college campus that Brother's Phil, Brent, and I attended.   This morning we drove to Collegetown and parked in the visitor's lot (a free parking spot on campus!)   Assistant Emily greeted us at the new Alumni Welcome Center and we took off.  Phil graduated in 1967.  I graduated in 1974.  Brent graduated in  1983.  We all had different visions of the campus based on when we attended.  Emily had obviously done this before.  Her route took us past all of the major buildings.   We ducked inside to see the student lounge/cafeteria/meeting rooms and whenever we were outside there were beautiful native flower and grass plantings.   The campus, though altered, still held a charm.  It was the perfect time to visit in order to appreciate the setting w/o the bustle of students.  My old haunt at the Phillips Science Center (a new building when Phil attended) is due to be razed in two years when the Science/Medical Center is finished.  The Zorn Auditorium (where graduation ceremonies were held up until this year) is now a hole belching trucks loaded w/ debris.  (Later, we did drive down the road to see it's replacement, the new Sonnentag Auditorium.)   After an hour of showing us around, Emily said goodbye.  Before leaving the city though, Phil, Brent, and I drove to the houses where we had lived during our college years.  Brent's white house still stands by the river.  The place Phil rented is now a lawn.  While there is a house on the corner where I lived, it's not the same house.  (I hope they saved the bird's-eye maple flooring.)   The biggest shocker though was not on the university grounds.  It was driving down Water Street (located adjacent to campus).  Fifty years ago it had been a hodgepodge of grimy bars.   The buildings are now uniformly red brick and the whole place reeks of gentrification.   I suppose that's progress.

Nope, I didn't take this picture - got it off the Internet.