AA-2026-53A945
On the image
Somewhere in the northeastern United States, a stone academic building sits on a low hillside with the self-assurance of an institution that decided in about 1890 that dressed bluestone and slate roofing conveyed permanence, and has been right ever since. The two-toned construction — darker roughcut stone on the older wing, lighter ashlar on the newer addition — tells the story of a college that kept running out of dormitory space every generation and solved the problem by bolting another wing onto whatever was already there, confident that the new stone would weather to match within a decade or two. The chimney stack centered on the roofline marks a building that was still being heated by a central boiler in the 1950s, a system that produced either too much heat or none at all, depending on which floor you lived on. The manicured slope below, the mature elms framing the facade, and the small monument or flagpole base near the entrance suggest this is the kind of building a development officer photographs for the annual report to remind alumni that their money went somewhere solid. Nobody photographs a building like this because it is new; they photograph it because it is meant to look as though it has always been there.
Visually related — by likeness
Bluestone Collegiate Building, Northeastern US Campus, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-53A945. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/bluestone-collegiate-building-northeastern-us-campus-1950s.
@misc{aaAA202653A945,
title = {Bluestone Collegiate Building, Northeastern US Campus, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-53A945},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/bluestone-collegiate-building-northeastern-us-campus-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Bluestone Collegiate Building, Northeastern US Campus, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-53A945 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/bluestone-collegiate-building-northeastern-us-campus-1950s ER -
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