Old SJC pictures

Several weeks ago a friend let me see an old book he had of Saint Joseph's College pictures. The book was a supplement to the Annual Catalog and was published in 1923.

The shot below was probably taken from the water tower. You can see the science building on the upper left. The baseball field that is long gone, but was discussed here. The building in the middle was Gaspar Hall, and I once had an office there. The leftmost window on the third floor was one of my office windows. The old administration building, which burned a year or two before I arrived, is on the right. On the bottom of the picture you can see the roof of Dwenger Hall.

Dwenger Hall, built as an infirmary, still looks much like it did in 1923, though it has not been used for over a dozen years. I also had an office in this building. My office was behind the left window over the porch. When this picture was taken, both windows over the porch were in the same room. When the building was converted to faculty offices in the late 1970s or early 1980s, that room was split. The late David Osterfeld had the other half and the window on the right.

Below is another look at the baseball field that was to the east of the Science Building.

The top row of pictures shows the science building looking toward the east and some of the auxiliary buidings. I am not completely sure about the second row, but I think it shows the buildings east of the water tower. The third row seems to be the farm buildings which are about a half mile west of Sparling Avenue.

The reflecting pond still has the same shape, but the ornamentation is very different.

I think this classroom was still pretty much the same when I arrived at SJC. It looks like a classroom on the third floor of the science building.

The basketball court occupied space that is now part of the library.

The dining hall would have been in the basement of the chapel.

The gymnastics apparatus was common in colleges and high schools early in the twentieth century. I do not know where it would have been located.

The football team from almost 90 years ago.

The school then was very different from the school now.