We made a short visit to Houston last weekend and spent a little time at our old stomping grounds.Although said grounds were well nigh unrecognizable, so much new building and general expansion and upgrading has happened since the early '70's.
You could say that about a lot of the Houston area, but the space I'm referring to is the Rice University campus. A lifetime ago we were students here. But it was a more wide-open place then. They've gone practically crazy in the intervening—yikes!—nearly 40 years. With some of our alumni donations, no doubt. Although I don't see our names on any buildings....
It was hard to find some of the structures that we remembered having classes in, seeing plays in, playing games in, etc. Henry is studying a map in the photo above on the right, doing his best to orient us.
The old tower of Hanszen College was where Henry spent—or, more accurately, mis-spent—his first couple of years of higher education. I'm looking up at it in the picture at the left.
It wasn't really all that hard to find Hanszen (read a bit here about why it's a "college"), nor was it hard to find the building I remember most fondly, the Library, where I worked all through school, for two years right after graduating, and then, again, for 2 years after getting my library degree. Here I am in the impressive arcade along the front of the building. The outside still looks the same, although the interior is almost unrecognizable from those days of card catalogs and print-only resources.
The Library forms one side of the main quad, which also wasn't hard to find. Here's Henry in the quad with the Physics Building on the left behind him and Lovett Hall, the first building to be erected on the campus, on the right:
Not only was Lovett Hall the first Rice building, but its cornerstone was laid exactly one hundred years ago! We just barely missed getting to attend the ceremony they had to celebrate on Monday. Here's a very interesting article about the impact that the founding of the university had on Houston back then, as well as the impression this ornately lovely building made, rising "miraculously out of the earth." (The article's author has a Rice history blog I've recently discovered and am enjoying.)
We missed that celebration, but plan to be there for the big party next year, when they celebrate the centennial of the opening of the school.
2012 will be a milestone year for us personally, too, marking 35 years since we said "I do" in the University chapel, which, thankfully, hasn't been refurbished or updated at all (and hasn't needed it). On the right is one of the chapel's doorhandles, with the "RI" standing for "Rice Institute," the place's original name, on the top, and the cute little owl mascot decorating the bottom.
And here's a bit more ancient history, us with our parents at the chapel's altar after the ceremony.
It wasn't really all that hard to find Hanszen (read a bit here about why it's a "college"), nor was it hard to find the building I remember most fondly, the Library, where I worked all through school, for two years right after graduating, and then, again, for 2 years after getting my library degree. Here I am in the impressive arcade along the front of the building. The outside still looks the same, although the interior is almost unrecognizable from those days of card catalogs and print-only resources.
The Library forms one side of the main quad, which also wasn't hard to find. Here's Henry in the quad with the Physics Building on the left behind him and Lovett Hall, the first building to be erected on the campus, on the right:
Not only was Lovett Hall the first Rice building, but its cornerstone was laid exactly one hundred years ago! We just barely missed getting to attend the ceremony they had to celebrate on Monday. Here's a very interesting article about the impact that the founding of the university had on Houston back then, as well as the impression this ornately lovely building made, rising "miraculously out of the earth." (The article's author has a Rice history blog I've recently discovered and am enjoying.)
We missed that celebration, but plan to be there for the big party next year, when they celebrate the centennial of the opening of the school.2012 will be a milestone year for us personally, too, marking 35 years since we said "I do" in the University chapel, which, thankfully, hasn't been refurbished or updated at all (and hasn't needed it). On the right is one of the chapel's doorhandles, with the "RI" standing for "Rice Institute," the place's original name, on the top, and the cute little owl mascot decorating the bottom.
And here's a bit more ancient history, us with our parents at the chapel's altar after the ceremony.
Yep, with memories like this, Rice is a pretty special place.
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