Dear Liza,
Another busy weekend has flown by! As the summer winds down, activities become more tightly packed and we try to keep up.
Saturday we drove a few miles south to Reed College, a beautiful college built in 1912. The original buildings were designed by A. E. Doyle, who designed some of my favorite old buildings downtown. They are a brick Gothic design, with tell narrow windows, peaked arches and doorways, and lots of Hogwarts-style detail.
The campus is built on land donated by William Ladd, who had done very well in business and owned huge chunks of land on the east side of the Willamette. It was funded and named for Mr. Simeon Gannet Reed, who had made his money in transportation and left it to be used for a “college of lectures”, that is, liberal arts and humanities.
At the north end of the campus is Reed Lake, a stretch of water surrounded by tall pines and maples. A beautiful arching bridge goes over a narrow section, allowing long views of ducks and apparent wilderness. I like this part of the campus because it feels woodsy, like UC Santa Cruz.
Coming out of the woods we found Eliot Hall, the main administration building. It had the elegant brickwork and glazed Terra Cotta details that Mr. Doyle used in so many of his buildings.
Further along we found the Old Dorm Block, a long building that tickled our Harry Potter funny bones. There were goofy carvings, a rabid beaver on the roof, and a Sallyport. This is a feature borrowed from old castles, a passageway through a building that, in medieval days, was a place to run in case of attack.
The Student Union had a wonderful dining hall that looked like the King and Queen should host the knights for dinner. Intricate wooden trusses and a huge brick fireplace gave it a feeling of history. This was appropriate, since the hall is now over a hundred years old.
I will tell you more about what we found at Reed tomorrow!
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 