22. Landmarks

The quadrangle, or "Quad", is the heart of Albion's campus. The Quad contains the oldest buildings on campus and most of the classroom space is either on or near the Quad. During the 1880s, the football field was on the Quad.

One item of interest is the Rock, which has been an icon of Albion College for over 100 years. The Rock gets painted by students on a nearly daily schedule. Over the years, it has been painted, wrapped, tarred and feathered, photographed, stolen, and sculpted in miniature. On warm days, it is not unusual to see several classes being held on the grass on the Quad. In May, and weather allowing, commencement is held at the west end of the Quad, using the steps of Kresge Gymnasium as a stage.

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Maypole on the Quad, 1913

June 1925

Warm spring afternoon on the Quad, n.d.

 

The Stone Pile, originally located between Robinson and South Halls, was the memorial to the class of 1870. In May of 1870, the graduating students searched the countryside for attractive boulders, bringing back to campus by horse and wagon as many boulders as there were members of the class. The Boulders were then piled in pyramid fashion in front of Robinson Hall. The Stone Pile was moved at some point in time to the Hannah Street side of Gerstacker International House and cemented in place there.

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Stone Pile near Dickie Hall, not dated.

n.d.

The Rock in the middle of the walk between North and Robinson Hall was the memorial to the class of 1899. Many times during the year in the dead of night, the Rock is covered with a new coat of paint, declaring the news of some event to the students. Over the years, it has been tarred and feathered, toilet-papered, drenched with gas and ignited, pelted with eggs, covered with shaving cream, manure, obscenities, political statements, birthday greetings, secret codes, Greek symbols, and chained naked fraternity pledges.

In 1962, an effort was made by campus administration to move the Rock from the middle of the sidewalk, where considerable paint spillage and footprints occurred when energetic students doused the Rock with paint. It took two tow trucks two and a half hours to move the Rock the fifty to sixty feet toward Epworth Hall. That night, a group of students, armed with block and tackle, moved the Rock back to its original location. On the subsequent evening, the Rock was moved by another group of people and buried to the north side of its current location, so that only about a foot of the Rock was showing above the ground. A group of the SORC (Save Our Rock Committee) resurrected the Rock from its burial location and put it in its current location, cementing around the base to assure that it would be more difficult for the Rock to be moved again.

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Original location of the Rock by Dickie Hall, not dated.	International Plaid Day, 1998.	n.d.	Painting the Rock, n.d.
Replicas of the Rock were sold at Homecoming 2004.	Tribute to Ned Garvin, 2006.		Black Student Union, 2006.
Little Sibs Weekend 2003

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