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100 years ago (1904)
A two-story firehouse, built behind
the Quad on what is now Santa Teresa Street, was equipped
with two engines, a hand-operated hook-and-ladder wagon,
four ladders, hoses, axes, buckets and other apparatus.
Five students received free accommodations upstairs
in exchange for work as firefighters. A coded signal
from a loud steam whistle at the power house specified
the location of an emergency.
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Stanford University Archives |
At the Big Game, the Stanford rooting section
formed a large block S by strategically placing
students who were wearing white hats and shirts. (At
later games, the fans spelled LSJU.) This innovation
evolved into complex “card stunts” at Stanford
and the University of California.
75 years ago (1929)
The 30-year-old Toonerville Trolley that
connected Stanford to Palo Alto was abandoned, a victim
of the popularity of private automobiles. The electric
streetcar line had run along Galvez Street to Encina
Hall and beyond, making a sweeping arc in the area of
today’s Sweet Hall. It then followed Panama Street
behind the Quad, ending near the current Roble Gym.
Stealing rides in streetcars, known as the “Yellow
Perils,” was a time-honored tradition until the
Peninsula Railway arranged for operators to be deputized.
50 years ago (1954)
With financial backing from the Ford Foundation, the
independent Center for Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences opened its headquarters
in the Foothills behind campus. Alta Vista, the 50-year-old
Victorian mansion of the Charles G. Lathrop family,
had been demolished to make way for the center. Lathrop,
a brother of Jane Stanford, was an officer and trustee
of the University until his death in 1914.
Emanuel B. “Sam” McDonald, superintendent
of athletics buildings and grounds, retired September
1 after 51 years of service. Friends gave him a new
car at a banquet in his honor, and the Stanford Press
published his autobiography, Sam McDonald’s
Farm. He started at Stanford at age 19 as a teamster
hauling gravel for campus roads.
25 years ago (1979)
Alexander Calder’s 3-ton metal stabile Le
Faucon (The Falcon) was installed in the
Law School courtyard, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard
E. Lang of Seattle. It was part of an extensive outdoor
art program headed by art professor Albert Elsen.
The heaviest load yet carried over U.S. highways—a
107-ton doughnut-shaped superconducting electromagnet—arrived
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center from Chicago.
The load, on 120 wheels, traveled at 25 mph and took
up two traffic lanes. It was to be used in the new Positron
Electron Project.
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