Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge, taken from the ferry on the way to Mackinac Island.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Old Postcards: Berea College


I am still on a Berea kick.

The back of the Presser Music Hall postcard reads: The Department of Music is housed in Presser Hall. Beautiful gray Auditorium, which boasts a seating capacity of 500 people and the Howard E. Taylor Memorial Organ, is located in the central portion of the building. Under trained leadership, instructions in voice, piano, organ and instrumental music, also chorus and glee club work is given.

The Lincoln Hall photo card is postmarked 1950, as is the Fairchild Hall card. The Draper postcard is postmarked 1946.

The black and white Lincoln Hall card is very nice. When I was a student at Berea, I would have to go here to register for classes, and to cash my paycheck. Everyone worked for the school, and they did actually pay you a little. If you owed the school money for books or anything, they would deduct it from your check. Still, they would leave you $15 no matter what. So, on payday, everyone was walking around with $15. I would imagine it is still the same today, but we could really stretch $15. I tell people today that $15 at Berea then was worth about $100 to me now.

I did not spend much time at the Music Hall. I did have a lot of music major friends. Most of them changed their majors though.

I had many classes in the Draper Building. It is modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

A few years ago, my wife and I passed through Philadelphia late at night. We stopped to see the Liberty Bell, and we saw Independence Hall across the street. We were both amazed at the resemblance. I figured it would be a larger version of Draper, but it seemed pretty much exact.

The Draper building was very centrally located, and generally convenient. My dorm through most of my time there was right behind Draper. I could wake up 5-10 minutes before my first class of the day in Draper, and get to class on time.

Fairchild Hall was a girls dorm when I was there. The college post office was located on the left side of the building.

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