Trading Places
Southwestern often selectively calls on its past to authorize its present and future. Partially because of the constant turnover in students, many things here become naturalized--appearing as if they have always been that way and always will be that way. That logic plays out in all sorts of normative cultural dynamics on campus, but is most tangibly sensed in the way the main campus buildings look and feel, where even new buildings are made to echo earlier buildings and built of materials like limestone that not only are solid, but display that solidity. That is a common feature of commemorative landscapes--that they feel fixed and inevitable--but it is also the dominant conception of how place works, where a place often is experienced as a scene for action instead of the result of ongoing action to make it into and maintain it and contest it as a place.
One way to critically engage this phenomenon is to study the history of the way buildings come and go , especially the way buildings have moved around on campus and taken on different purposes over time. Sometimes, even buildings made of stone move around.
Journey of the "South Western Bell" & Where it Rests Today
This seemingly sedentary bell has had its fair share of movement, displacement, and re-placement
As a Southwestern student, faculty, or staff member, or even just a visitor to campus, you may or may not know of the “South Western Bell,” but I guarantee you’ve walked past it before if you have been on campus. This bell resides in a highly-trafficked area of campus: to the east of the Charline…
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How Korouva Milk Bar Became a Place
The Korouva Milk Bar was an exclusively student-run café and organization that opened in 1994 and closed its doors in 2020 as part of the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. As of this writing, in May 2023, it has not re-opened, though plans are in motion to resurrect it in a different location on the east side of campus in the near future.
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Korouva as Memory Place in 2023
In May, 2023, when the Placing Memory project began, Korouva Milk Bar was located in the Field House on the western edge of campus in a state of limbo, a relic from a lost time. Korouva was an exclusively student-run café and organization that opened in 1994 and closed its doors in March 2020 as part of the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and had sat there frozen in time ever since.
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The Old Field House
This unassuming building, now slated for demolition, is a microcosm of Southwestern’s history.
This building located at 1005 Maple Street on the west side of the Southwestern University campus is officially known as the “Old Field House.'' It is an unassuming and plain-looking building that many students pass by every day. Students may not know that the structure is one of the oldest on campus with many different stories contained within its walls.
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First Location of Griffith House, the First President’s Home
A house that was associated with both Presidents and International Students in the history of Southwestern and was moved around a lot.
Griffith House (also referred to as ‘the White House’) was the first president’s home on campus. The building was bought by Southwestern after the Ladies Annex fire in 1925. At the time, President Barcus and Mrs. Barcus were living on the first floor of Snyder Hall, an on-campus house serving as a…
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International House
An Enduring Concept, Though Not an Enduring Place
The International House (or I-House) was a living-learning community that had several locations in its years of operation. It was established at this site on campus in the old President’s home (Griffith House) in 1974. Interestingly, that building itself had been moved once before in the Spring of…
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International House Off-Campus
A Moving House, Home to Displaced People, Moved One Last Time Before Being Burned Down.
This is the second location of the International House (or I-House), and its final location as a stand-alone building. The I-House was a living-learning community for international students, third-culture students (students whose parents are from the US but who have grown up abroad), and students…
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International House Reboot
I-House Re-created as a Living-Learning Community Within Mabee Residence Hall in the 1990s.
The final version of the International House (or I-House) brought the concept back to campus within a wing of Mabee Hall. The I-House was a living-learning community for international students, third-culture students (students whose parents are from the US but who have grown up abroad), and…
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“Woody” McCook & the McCook-Crain Building
One of the multi-purpose buildings that moved around a lot before it was eventually demolished
Charles Woodruff McCook, informally known as Woody, was a Southwestern graduate and the son of the respected Southwestern Business Manager I. J. McCook. Woody graduated from Southwestern in 1941 and immediately joined the Army Air Corps in 1942. That same year, Woody was assigned to China where he…
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