Today's weather was absolutely beautiful. It was about 68/69 degrees and sunny all day. In light of the weather, I decided to venture around Smith's glorious campus one more time, only today I decided to locate Margaret Mitchell and Gloria Steinem's dorms.
Thanks to reading Gloria Steinem's yearbook yesterday, I knew she lived in a dorm called Laura Scales House. I found it on the map and walked there. As you can see, it is a beautiful, classic looking building.
Located on the Quandrangle, which is the school's housing area, Laura Scales House was created in honor of Laura Woolsey Lord Scales, a 1901 graduate who became the college's Warden (or dean of students) in 1922. The house was created as part of a larger effort to ensure all students lived on campus, and it was built in 1936. Gloria Steinem lived there all four years of college, I believe, and it is listed next to her name in her yearbook. There is also a picture of Gloria posing with her fellow Laura Scales House classmates in front of the dorm. Apparently, every yearbook had the students pose in front of their dorms. Personally, I wish there were still college yearbooks. I always enjoyed getting mine throughout K-12 school. I suppose social media and an overall lack of appreciation for posterity have killed the yearbook culture, sadly.
After finding the Laura Scales House, I went in search of Ten Henshaw Avenue, which is where Margaret Mitchell lived. Margaret lived there with four other girls, and they all called it "Ten Hen."
I did find Henshaw Avenue, but I was unable to locate 10 Henshaw. There was this glorious building on Henshaw, and beside it stood a parking lot, followed by a building labeled "14 Henshaw."
Considering this building had no address and there is a parking lot next door, either this building is 10 Henshaw, or the actual building was torn down.
After feeling slightly defeated, I returned to Smith's main campus. I cannot stress enough how exquisitely beautiful this campus is. Having traveled to some pretty campuses, including University of Virginia, Oxford, College of Charleston, and my alma mater USC, I can honestly say Smith College is hands-down the prettiest campus I have ever seen in my life. It glows with history and plant life. Set amid a lovely town, it is at once both urban and idyllic. Look at this beauty:
I soon found an Episcopal church on campus and decided to take a look. As you can imagine, it was a lovely but small church right on campus for the students. Its architecture is simple, but inviting and classic.
While there, I found the campus bookstore and bought myself a Smith t-shirt! I may not be a Smithie, but I do love this school.
Another neat discovery I made in the Campus Center is the fireplace room. How cozy is this? Oh, and I had to get a picture of the section of Great Illustrated Classics books; they were my favorites when I was about 7 years old.
The final picture is of the exterior of the Campus Center. Its architecture is surprisingly modern and contrasts sharply with the old brick buildings throughout the campus. Nevertheless, I liked the Campus Center and found its conspicuousness useful for navigating purposes!
Speaking of which, I returned to the Neilson Library (Smith's campus library, which also houses their archives) and took an ungodly amount of pictures. For the most part, the library is dark throughout. I did discover that there are three floors above the main floor, so there are more books there than I had presumed earlier. Nevertheless, there are considerably fewer books at the Neilson Library than at Thomas Cooper. Although I would have relished going to this school (or a school like Smith), I am grateful I got to attend the University of South Carolina at the very least for its library system, which is outstanding. Still, Smith's library is worth a visit, and their archives house some incredible stuff, including Margaret Sanger's papers.
That being said, there are a few things that still do not ring true for me. For one, their library bookmarks indicate some floors use Dewey Decimal, but others use Library of Congress. I have absolutely no idea why they would mix the two. It seems needlessly confusing and a waste of energy.
The best thing about the Neilson Library is the study area. Now THIS is how a library should look!
I walked through town some more after leaving the Neilson Library until I reached Northampton's public library, the Forbes Library.
It is a beautiful building inside and out. The shelves are a bit too close together for people with mobility-related disabilities, but I did like the quaintness of the library. It felt like a building people would want to come to for information and community events.
Also, the Forbes Library houses the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum. It was closed today, although I don't know why. I was able to go there a few days ago, but at the time I had picture-taking fatigue (unfortunately).
Forbes uses a card catalog in addition to their online catalog, and apparently the Coolidge Collection is entirely in a card catalog. It was fun to look through, for sure!
On another note, Forbes has old copies of books. I think they must be very selective in their weeding process, which is a great thing. Take for instance this first edition of Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton:
After visiting the library, I wandered through Northampton for the last time. The perfect spring weather enhanced the town's beauty - perfect to me, at least. While I was in line at a convenience store buying a snack, a man in front of me wiped some sweat from his forehead and said, "Man, it's so effin' hot today." Oh, honey. I sure hope you don't come to South Carolina for the next several months. Bless your heart.
It will be very difficult to say goodbye to this beautiful town tomorrow, but I am excited about the next leg of my journey. Tomorrow, I will travel to Lenox, Massachusetts to visit Edith Wharton's home, The Mount.
I'm exhausted, so good night for now!
Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment