Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Odds and ends, March 4, 2016

On Thursday the new offices of Institutional Advancement and Development were dedicated with a ceremony and a blessing. The new offices are in Drexel Hall. The move was done in the fall and here is a post about it.
The event was supposed to take place in the courtyard of the building, but the snow earlier this week made that location unsuitable. Instead it was held in the small reception area in the front of the building. I was not in position to take a good picture if it was even possible to get a good picture. (Some people wanted to visit the courtyard to see what they missed.)
The president of the college gave a brief history of the building, emphasizing the role of Sister Drexel, who in the late 19th century set up a number of schools for blacks in the south and Indians in the midwest and west. The Rensselaer Indian School operated for less than ten years and drew boys from Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin.
I noticed new construction, a storage shed for lawnmowers and snow removal equipment used for the Court House. I vaguely recall a discussion of this at some County meeting.
The Building Trades house on Scott Streets looks a lot different from how it appeared last fall.
If you are passing the Carnegie Center and think that something looks different, it may be the removal of some big trees on the north side of the building.
Friday at noon the "Going out of Business" sale at Blockbuster began. There was a sizable crowd lined up when the doors opened.
The Monticello Blockbuster is still in business, but perhaps not for too much longer.

Have you ever noticed the BNSF engines on the CSX line that passes through Rensselaer. I believe that every morning a train of empty ore cars passes through town, coming back from the Magnetation plant near Reynolds.
Tonight is the first production of the Carnegie Player's "And Then There Were None." For other things happening this weekend, check out the Visit Rensselaer Calendar.

Update: I forgot to mention a funny thing that the people with offices in Drexel Hall have noticed. They often get trucks coming down their driveway and then having to turn around in their parking lot. Apparently whatever GPS mapping service the trucker are using has confused Drexel Drive with the Drexel driveway.

1 comment:

Grey Friar said...

Ah yes, good old GPS. It took me on a route to a business I needed to visit, but there was only one problem: A small stream about 50 feet wide that was not bridged where the street crossed it on the GPS map. I had to detour about a half mile to cross the nearest bridge and then backtrack on the far side from where I was to the street I need to be on and continue my journey.