Recently when I was visiting Utah, I had the chance to visit the Brigham Young University campus all by myself. Frank and I both attended BYU (when we went there, it was "
the" BYU; we didn't call it BYU-Provo, although BYU-Hawaii did exist back then) and whenever we visit Utah we like to visit the campus. Our boys usually get dragged along on this expedition, and I don't think they particularly enjoy it. So the nice thing about visiting alone is that I got to walk all over, reminiscing, and no one was there to complain about how long I was taking.
I'm not really sure why, but I absolutely
love BYU. It is a great school, of course! But honestly, when I was there as a student I mostly just worked really hard. And stressed out about tests. And didn't get a lot of sleep. (I did learn proper sentence structure...I'm just choosing not to use it.) I look back at that time and think "I was too responsible. I should have had more
fun!" In spite of that, however, I still have lots of great memories of my time at BYU, and I look at that period of my life as one of the best. I learned so much...not just academics, but about myself. I made some really great friends. My testimony grew...a lot! It was such a great atmosphere, and I still feel a strong spirit when I visit there.
Visiting BYU campus now is kind of strange. On our first visits back, things hadn't changed much and the students were only a few years younger than us. But somewhere along the line (I'm not sure how!) a lot of time passed. Several years ago I realized that "my" BYU belonged to a whole new generation of students. Then the ultimate crazy thing happened last year--I took one of my sons to BYU and helped him move into his dorm!! My BYU now belongs to my kids' generation! It was a very surreal experience for me. It sounds cliche, but seriously...wasn't I a student myself just the other day?!! Were these kids really as old and mature as I was (or thought I was) when I started going to BYU? At the same time, I was proud of him, and so excited for him. And just a little bit jealous!
On this most recent visit to BYU campus, I had time to look around and reflect. It's a confusing mixture of comfortingly familiar and startlingly different sights. I've seen BYU go through a lot of changes over the years. My memories of BYU go further back than my student days. I first visited BYU in the late summer of 1977. My family took a trip to Arizona and then up to Utah, to take my brother Erick back to BYU for the fall semester (I believe this was his second year there.) My oldest brother Curtis had also attended BYU before his mission, and I had heard a lot of stories from my brothers about "college". I was very excited to actually see the place where they had gone. I don't remember a lot about the campus other than I thought the bookstore was really cool. Oh, and I was super disappointed that I was not allowed upstairs in the boys' dorm, so I didn't get to see my brother's room. He lived in Deseret Towers...I thought it looked like an awesome place to live! (When Tanner moved into Helaman Halls in August 2014, I was surprised to discover that I
was allowed to go up to his room--which was very convenient, since I could help him get all his stuff moved in and unpacked. Plus, it was nice to see for myself where he was going to be living. Females normally aren't allowed up on the residence levels, but for move in day, the rule was relaxed for family members.) About a year after that trip to drop off Erick, my family moved to Orem, Utah so from then on we lived near BYU and we visited the campus for various reasons on occasion.
Anyway, back to 1977...I had already decided then that I was going to go to BYU myself someday. I never changed my mind. I was a good student and I received lots of mailers from colleges all over the country and some of them sounded pretty cool. However, I never really seriously considered going anywhere else, and in the end I didn't apply to any other schools.
On that 1977 visit to BYU, my sister Amy bought me a postcard booklet as a gift. I collected postcards back then (I still do, just not as avidly as I used to) and she was thoughtful enough to get some for me. I get a real kick out of these postcards now because they show just how much BYU has changed since then. They are a real treasure because they give us a look at the past! Judging by the cars in some of the pictures, I would say that these pictures were taken several years before 1977...even as early as the late 1950s, maybe...but overall they can give us an idea of what BYU looked like in the 1970s. My brothers who attended BYU at that time can correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway, here are the pictures in that postcard set, along with updated pictures taken more recently and some of the changes I can note:
I don't remember there being a parking lot between the Wilkinson Center and the Library! Not sure if it was there in 1977, but it was there (although hard to see) in this aerial photo I found of BYU taken in 1974:
At any rate, the parking lot certainly wasn't there by 1986, when I began attending BYU. However (going back to the first post card photo, as well as the photo below), this is the way I remember the Wilkinson Center...with an open air courtyard in the middle. I also remember the "quad" having those diagonal walkways.
Here is a more recent photo of the quad (taken from the opposite direction):
You can see the skylights from the underground section of the library (not there in my day--added in 1999), the Museum of Art (which was dedicated in 1993, shortly after I graduated from BYU), the bell tower and the Bean Museum, and the Provo Temple with a white spire and an Angel Moroni statue on top (the spire was still gold and there was no Angel Moroni statue during my BYU days). You can also see Deseret Towers in the background...they were torn down a few years ago to make way for the new Heritage Halls. One of the old Heritage Halls buildings is also visible right in front of the Deseret Towers buildings. On my last visit, most of the old Heritage Halls buildings were gone also, although a few were still standing. Probably not for long.
The Wilkinson Center was built in 1964. Here are some pictures of the Wilkinson Center now:
The building was renovated after my BYU days (in 1998) so the open courtyard is gone. There are still many things that are the same...there's still a bowling alley in the basement, the bookstore is in basically the same place (although the floorplan has changed considerably over the years) and the Cougar Eat is still there, although it has also changed a lot in its layout--and the food that they offer. The Varsity Theater is still there too...although there was a typical movie concessions stand out front, not a Jamba Juice, in my day. I remember spending a day at the Wilkinson Center when I was about 12--our Sunday School teacher took our class there to go bowling--and thinking it was the greatest place on earth!
Here are a few pictures of the Wilkinson Center taken from the other side:
I added these pictures because this is the way the street looked during my days. The street is no longer a through street...it ends at a round about next to the Wilkinson Center. So you can still drop off or pick people up right by the Wilkinson Center, but you can't drive past it anymore. I crossed this street many, many times because during my first and fourth years (when I lived at home, in Orem) I would park in the "Y" lot just across the street from the Wilkinson Center and then walk to class by going through the Wilkinson Center. (At least on my lucky days...it was always incredibly difficult to find an empty parking spot in that lot, and I often had to park by the Marriott Center instead.)
This aerial view shows a much smaller BYU campus from the one I attended:
Some buildings (such as the JKHB and the Lee Library) are a lot smaller than they were in my day, and several other buildings (such as the Tanner Building, and the Spencer W. Kimball tower) aren't there yet. Even the law building appears to be missing in this picture!
The HFAC looks the same, but this long fountain and the row of benches (which were there when I attended BYU) are gone now. Instead, there is a steep bank with windows at the bottom, which look into the new addition of the Harold B. Lee Library.
I have quite a few HFAC memories, and I've always loved this building. I will be sad when (inevitably, I suppose) this building gets renovated or torn down some day. The big open space in the middle for art exhibits with the movable walls? So cool! When we first moved to Utah (I was 10), I liked to run around through the art gallery...it was like a maze. And all those levels of balconies looking down into the exhibit area? Also cool! When I was in 5th and 6th grades, I was in the BYU Children's Chorus for a couple of semesters. I remember singing in an Easter concert with a bunch of the BYU choirs in this area. The choirs stood all around on the balconies and the staircases. I remember standing on the stairs, singing. The second semester that I sang in the chorus, we had our weekly practices in one of the concert halls in the HFAC. I also sang in the De Jong concert hall a number of times...both in BYU Children's Chorus and later, when I was in high school choir. Besides that, I have attended many concerts, plays, and recitals in this building.
Here's another view of the fountain by the ASB (from the opposite direction), from the cover of my postcard booklet (complete with my name and Lancaster address written on it):
In this picture, you can see the statue of Brigham Young at the far left. BYU legend has it that if you ran across the quad towards this statue at just the right angle and in just the right light, it would look like Brigham Young was doing the "funky chicken". The library addition is undoubtedly nice, but its location has deprived generations of BYU students from having this unique experience. I guess they don't know what they're missing, though.
This one kind of floors me. If you look to the far left of this picture, you can see the ASB in the background. That means that this building was the whole library at that time! In my days at BYU, there was another whole section to the building the same size as this one (added in 1976, the first part was completed in 1961). And now there is a huge (mostly underground) addition that wasn't there in my day. You can see the part that joins the two sections of the building in this photo:
I spent a decent amount of time in the library during my BYU days--we didn't have the internet back then, so if we had to research anything, the library was our only option! I took a library science class once too--kind of fun, if I remember correctly. Anyway, on my most recent visit to BYU I walked through the library a bit. It is quite a bit different inside and I had a hard time remembering what it used to be like. (I actually remember the old card catalog...you know, the kind they had before computers? Big cases containing drawers and drawers of alphabetized index size cards. I also remember that on some of the floors, there used to be these really nice women's bathrooms that included "lounges" with couches to sit on. It wasn't unusual to find someone napping on one of those couches when I went in to use the restroom. I was sad to see that those bathrooms are all gone...replaced by more space efficient, but much more sterile versions.) Okay! I digress! The library has changed a lot, but one thing I noticed when I walked in is that it smells exactly the same...that old book smell! (Not at all unpleasant.) Also, the stairs are the same. In one stairwell, this sight jogged memories:
And the stairs themselves? As I walked up them I noticed that they are still uncomfortably spaced for my stride (too short and wide) and that on the side next to the handrail, there are actual hollowed out places in the steps worn there by all those feet that have tread those stairs all these many years! It felt kind of weird placing my feet in those hollow spots, knowing that my feet are certainly two of the many that helped to wear out those spots and that a 25 year younger me had climbed those steps many a time.
The JKHB looks a lot the same as it does now, from this view. But there is an L-shaped wing in the back that was not there when this picture was taken. (Looks like it was there in the 1974 aerial photo, though). I had quite a few classes in this building because I minored in English, and many of the English classes were held in this building. Plus for some reason a few of my Accounting classes were held in this building as well. Here's a picture of the JKHB now (taken from the opposite direction):
The facade around the windows is lighter, but that is the main difference. The original structure was built in 1960.
Ah, the old JSB! This is the JSB that I remember. (Pretty sure the parking lot was not there anymore, though.) I had several religion classes in this building as well as other classes in the large auditorium on the main floor. It was a confusing building, though. The upper levels were not completely connected so depending on where your class was, you had to choose a certain set of stairs to get there. A freshman's nightmare, until you figured the building out! It was built in 1941.
This building was replaced with a new Joseph Smith Memorial Building in 1991:
But this ancient rock out front is a familiar sight, since it was near the old JSB too:
The Talmage Building (built in 1971) is one of the comfortingly familiar sights. Here it is now:
Not much different! Although I never had a class in this building...not much of a math person.
Here's the Marriott Center (also built in 1971), which also looks pretty much the same:
I believe there have been some changes to the inside over the years, but the outside is sweetly familiar, and the inside is not significantly different either, at least in my memory. I have lots of memories from this building! Firesides, basketball games, devotionals. Not to mention my high school graduation and (of course) my graduation ceremony from BYU. I finished classes in December 1992 and "walked" in the April 1993 graduation ceremonies, which just happened to fall on my first wedding anniversary (April 23rd) so that was a big day!
(At the Marriott Center)
(In front of our apartment at 234 North 300 East in Provo.)
Even the Provo Temple has changed since I received the postcard booklet in 1977. Then:
Now:
The spire was painted white and an Angel Moroni was added to the top. Those changes were made after I moved away from Utah, though, so the older look, with the gold spire, is the one I remember the most.
The final postcard from the booklet is a shot of the football stadium, which has also changed significantly:
I do remember the stadium this way...it was like this when we first moved to Utah in December 1978. I went to my first football game when I was about 11 or 12. We sat in the north end zone (I think) and we happened to have seats right in front of the visiting team's band. I still remember that BYU was playing Colorado State. We all got really tired of hearing the band members chanting "Here we go Rams, here we go" over and over. (The Rams didn't "go" enough, because BYU won the game.) The other thing I remember about that game is that it was really cold. We huddled in blankets for a lot of the game. It wasn't the best introduction to the world of BYU football, but I've had lots of fun times at games in the years since.
The stadium was expanded in 1982. My parents had season tickets in the south end zone for years, and I went to a lot of games even before I was a student. It looks like this now:
In the fall of 2012, I got to go with Amy to a BYU football game for the first time in many years. That game was not cold (actually rather hot) and lots of fun:
BYU didn't disappoint me, either...they won that game, too!
That's the last of the postcards, but I have a number of other thoughts and pictures to share.
Here is the Spencer W. Kimball Tower (SWKT):
I remember when the SWKT was built. The first semester that I was in BYU Children's Chorus (Spring 1979, I think. Or maybe it was 1980.) I would walk past this huge roped-off hole in the ground on my way to practices. That hole became the SWKT (completed in 1981). This particular spot in front of the SWKT is significant to my family's history:
There used to be a bench there. It was while sitting on this bench, very late on October 11, 1991 (or maybe it was very early October 12th) that Frank and I kissed each other for the first time. (Eye rolls from all our boys.)
By the way, there is also a big air vent in the sidewalk right near here, which the boys were much more interested in on one of our visits (July 2005):
Here's another building we visited that same day:
This is the new Smith Family Living Center (finished that year). During my BYU days, the Smith Family Living Center looked more like this:
This building was built in 1957. I had a sewing class here my first semester and during my third year (when I lived near campus in a house with 5 roommates) our ward held Sunday meetings in this building. The new building is definitely nicer.
I need to throw in a few pictures of the house I lived in during my third year, since I just mentioned it. I can't remember the exact address now, but it is at approximately 746 North 700 East in Provo. I know I took pictures of the outside, but I can't find them right now. Here are a few of the inside (blurry, sorry!):
We had a large living room, as you can see, and the kitchen was pretty big too. We had more counter and cupboard space in that old house than I have in my house now! The door you see in the living room photo is the door to the kitchen. There was another door in the wall opposite from the fireplace that went into the room that I shared with my roommate Joni. The door you see in the kitchen opened to a short set of stairs that led to a landing with another door to a parking lot in the back of the house. (The stairs continued down a few more steps to a basement door. I believe 3 girls lived in the apartment in the basement.) This house also had 3 more bedrooms (one used to be the dining room, and you had to walk through it to get to the back bedroom...not very private for the girl in that room!) and two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms was next to the kitchen and the other one was an "en suite" to the large back bedroom, which Amy and my friend Paula shared. (That room also had a door that opened up to a short flight of steps to the parking lot.) I remember the bathroom by the kitchen had a tub (but no shower) and the back bathroom had a shower (but no tub). I also remember that the shower never drained properly and if you didn't take a VERY quick shower, the bathroom floor would flood. I did really enjoy living in this house, though. I liked my roommates a lot and we had a good ward.
Okay, enough of that...back to campus!
Here's a building that hasn't changed much in the time I've known it:
This is the David O. McKay building, which was built in 1954. I never had classes in this building, either, but I mentioned earlier being in the BYU Children's Chorus. This is where we had our weekly practices the first semester I was in the chorus. There used to be vending machines in the lobby on this side...I remember that because as a 10 (maybe 11) year old I was always drooling over the contents of the vending machines! In particular, I remember one sold ice cream bars. The photo above was taken this summer. Here's an older photo, which I found on the internet so I don't know when it was taken:
Looks about the same!
Of course, I spent a whole lot of time in this building, which was built in 1983:
The Tanner Building! Being an accounting major, I had a whole lot of classes in this building. It looks pretty cool inside:
Those stairs, though! So uncomfortable to climb! Like the library stairs, they are too short and wide for my stride. I found it was easier to take two steps at a time.
Of course, Tanner thinks this building is pretty awesome, too:
Even the Tanner Building has changed since I spent so much time there. It now has a large addition:
There used to be a parking lot there and when I was very, very, very lucky I actually found a place to park there. It only happened once or twice!
Here's another new building that wasn't there in my BYU days:
The new Alumni House, or Gordon B. Hinckley Building. (It was completed in 2007.) It was hard to track down a photo of the old Alumni House, but I think this is it (I personally don't remember it that well):
The new one is much more impressive, don't you think?
My second year at BYU I lived on campus, in Heritage Halls. I lived in this building:
You probably can't read it, but the sign says Carroll Hall. I took these pictures in August 2013 and I'm glad I did because the building has been torn down since then. In these pictures, it looks the same as it did when I lived there in 1987-88. I lived on the top (third) floor. My apartment was on the left side of the building (looking at the picture) and in the back (so those windows are not from my apartment, they're from the apartment right next door to mine). The sliding glass doors to the balcony were right across the hall from my apartment's front door. Amy lived in this same building that year, but in a different apartment. If I remember right, her apartment was on the second floor and it was on the right side of the building (opposite side from my apartment). I can't remember if her apartment was in front or back, though. I shared this apartment with 5 other girls. It had 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom (with 2 toilets and I think 2 showers too) and a kitchen / dining / living area (basically an eat in kitchen with a couch on one wall).
I remember that even though we lived in the same building, Amy and I were in different wards. My floor was assigned to one ward and her floor was assigned to another. The rest of the people in my ward lived in a couple of buildings in Helaman Halls (I forget which ones now). I didn't like that set up very much, and neither did any of the other girls on our floor. The majority of the members of our ward lived on the other side of campus, in close quarters with each other. They all got to be really good friends. We always felt kind of left out. Even our home teachers found it inconvenient to walk "all the way across campus" to visit us! (Although most of my FHE group were pretty nice.) I don't think they have the wards arranged like that anymore, thankfully.
In this picture, you can see the top of one of the new Heritage Halls buildings:
Here's a few (very blurry) pictures from my Heritage Halls days:
I took this picture from the balcony.
I took this picture from the window of my room, which was the middle room. I liked the view of the bell tower that I had from my room!
Here I am with my roommates (plus one visiting friend) smashed onto the couch in the kitchen. It was still the 80's, but no--our hair didn't usually look like that! We were being silly and decided to "rat" our hair, then take a picture.
Here's a picture of Amy and I on the balcony:
One of the best parts of that year was that Amy and I got to participate in a study. The graduate student doing the study was trying to determine how genetics affects our exercise ability. He needed both identical and fraternal twins to determine if his hypothesis was correct. Most of that school year, Amy and I exercised 4 times a week. We started out at 15 minute sessions and worked our way up to 45 minute sessions. We jogged twice a week and rode stationary bikes twice a week. Sounds like fun, right? Okay, maybe exercising wasn't all that fun (although I definitely came to appreciate the benefits of exercise and found that in some ways I liked it) but it was also a great social experience. There were over 30 sets of twins (and one set of triplets) participating in the study and we had a couple of parties during that time which were really fun. Occasionally, we had to have tests done somewhere in Salt Lake City and we went in smaller groups to have that done, with lots of talking and laughter on the way. (On one trip, I remember one person saying "Hey! Let's all stare at that person in the next car while we go by. It will freak them out--they'll see double multiple times!) The first time we all got together, the conversation turned to dumb questions people ask twins (such as "if I pinch you, will your twin feel it too?") and then someone brought up the question "What's it like to be a twin?" In unison, all 60+ of us together shouted "We don't know what it's like NOT to be a twin!!!"
Because of all the exercising, I spent a lot of time at this building during that school year:
We had our own room in the Richards Building, which housed several exercise bikes for our use. These pictures were taken in that room:
I spent a lot of time in the Smith Fieldhouse, just across the way from the Richards Building also, because that's where the track was. When the weather was nice, I enjoyed jogging outside, around Provo. But in the winter I was really grateful for the indoor track at the Smith Fieldhouse!
Another interesting item that came out of our participation in this study: they did genetic testing on all of us and it turns out that Amy and I are identical twins. The doctor said we were fraternal at birth and we spent our whole lives up until then insisting that we were fraternal to people who were just as adamantly sure that we HAD to be identical. It was a little strange making the shift in thinking...I think I had a slight mini identity crisis! But I had to admit that my sister and I looked a lot more like each other than any of the fraternal sets of twins in the study. As a matter of fact, the guy doing the study told us that the medical personnel doing the testing on all of us were rating all the sets of twins on how much they looked alike, and Amy and I were always one of the sets rated "most alike".
Here's a picture that was taken in Amy's apartment that year:
Very washed out; what can I say? It's an old picture and our cameras were not very high quality! We don't usually dress alike, but we took this picture the same day that we had a group photo taken of all the twins in the twin study, and Gregg Affman (the graduate student doing the study) had asked us to please dress alike for the picture.
During my second year my ward met in this building:
The MARB! (Thomas L. Martin Classroom Building)
It looks like this inside:
I had a few classes and labs in this building over the years, too. The MARB was built in 1969.
The MARB was attached (in the basement level only) to this building:
The Widstoe Building, which was built in 1970. It was just torn down this year because this building was built to replace it (although not in the same location):
Other familiar sights--some with fond memories:
The Clyde Building (built in 1973), across from the MARB. I had an interesting experience near this building during my third year at BYU. I walked past this building every morning on my way to classes. It just so happened that my first class began near the time that the American flag on BYU campus (on the quad, near the ASB) was raised each morning. At that time, the National Anthem would be played on a loudspeaker, and everyone on campus was expected to stop walking and put their hands on their hearts until the song ended. I thought this was a sweet tradition, although if I was in a hurry, I found it a bit annoying. Anyway, one winter morning on my way to class I was near the Clyde Building when the National Anthem began, so I stopped. There were several trees overhanging the sidewalk and as I listened to the song, I realized that I also heard a lot of birds in the trees overhead and looking down at the icy sidewalk, I noticed a number of bird poop splatters. This made me nervous, but being the patriotic person that I am, I didn't want to move. Sure enough, shortly before the anthem ended, I felt something hit my head. Yuck! I had to make another stop on the way to class at a restroom to wash the spot out of my hair, which fortunately wasn't very big. My classmates thought the story of my adventure on the way to class was pretty funny, and I couldn't help laughing either. You wouldn't think that would be a fond memory, but I still smile when I think about it!
The Maeser Building. I never had a class in this building, but it's a BYU icon. The first building built on the "Upper Campus", built as a memorial to and named after the founder of BYU, Karl G. Maeser. It was completed in 1911.
Another view of the Maeser Building.
This used to be the house where the president of BYU lived. (Not sure where the president lives now.)
BYU's newspaper..the Daily Universe!
The Indian statue (Massasoit) near the Lee Library.
The bell tower, which was built in 1975 to commemorate BYU's centennial year.
One of the white walkways near the Marriott Center. My kids liked these on our visits:
Y mountain! The big 'Y" was put on the mountain in 1906. The original Y was made of sand, rocks, and lime. Originally, the plan was to put all three letters (BYU) on the mountain, but it was so difficult and time consuming to create the Y (the first letter they did) that the other two letters were never attempted. In later years, the Y was covered in whitewash, and it became a tradition for BYU students to help whitewash the Y each year on "Y day". In the late 1970's the Y was covered with a mixture of sand and cement, and the whitewashing days came to an end. I was always kind of sad that I didn't get to participate in that!
The Monte L. Bean Museum
The BYU Creamery (this one is at the Cougar Eat in the Wilkinson Center). I remember walking to the BYU Creamery located near Heritage Halls to buy milk sometimes during the year that I lived in Heritage Halls. (There's still a creamery in that location, although it's in a new building) Now there is also a BYU Creamery located on 9th East. (Called "Creamery on Ninth") It used to be a little grocery store (I bought groceries there a few times during my Heritage Halls days too) but was remodeled in 1999. The ice cream hasn't changed over the years...it's still delicious! Here we are enjoying some BYU ice cream (and other food) at Creamery on Ninth in 2013 (although we all have weird expressions on our faces!):
The Brewster Building (1962)...Frank worked in this building for a number of years.
The Museum of Art (MOA) which was built right after I graduated, but since I lived in Provo for over 4 years after I graduated, it became a familiar sight.
The old Knight Mangum Building, which isn't there anymore. It was kind of a mess and probably needed to go anyway!The old math lab was in this building, if I remember correctly. It was torn down in 2008.
The Harman (Caroline Hemenway) Building, built in 1982.
The Roland A. Crabtree Technology Building was brand new when I started attending BYU...it was built in 1985.
The Eyring Science Center (named for BYU professor Carl F. Eyring) was not at all new...it was built in 1950. It's been renovated quite extensively in more recent years, though. The large lobby area in the front contains a large pendulum and several fascinating hands on science exhibits. My kids have enjoyed visiting this building!
"Windows of Heaven" sculpture
This sculpture is entitled "First Child". On one walk across campus after a large snowstorm, I was highly amused when I passed this favorite sculpture to see that someone had built a snowman around the little girl part of the statue. Looked like Mom and Dad were holding hands with a snowchild!
One of the entrance signs
And the other entrance sign!
The bell tower in winter.
The Brimhall Building, which is one of the oldest buildings on campus, built in 1919. (Two floors were added in 1935.) It was named for former BYU president George H. Brimhall.
The HFAC (Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center), taken this summer. It was built in 1964.
The ASB (Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building)...also hasn't changed much since it was built in 1961.
The Law Building, completed in 1975.
Here's another BYU icon:
The Tree of Wisdom was created in 1975 by a BYU professor. I took this photo this summer, and this is actually not the original Tree of Wisdom sculpture. It's a reproduction, built to look just like the original one but out of stronger materials. The original sculpture had deteriorated quite badly, so it was recently replaced. The statue has moved a couple of times also. In my BYU days, it was located on the quad in front of the Lee Library. I believe it was moved because this structure took its place:
This is the new entrance to the library, which was added on when the underground addition was built.
When my family visited campus in June 2010, the sculpture had been moved behind the SWKT, as you can see in this picture:
We also took these pictures at that time. You can see that this is the original sculpture, showing some wear and tear:
(You can see the McKay Building in the background of this picture.)
The present location of the sculpture is near this location, but it's been moved closer to the Joseph Smith Building. I'm not sure why the reproduction sculpture was put in a different spot. At any rate, I've always been fascinated by this piece. It looks different depending on what angle you look at it.
Some other familiar sights have memories that aren't so pleasant:
The Heber J. Grant Building, better known as the testing center! Lots of anxiety associated with this building! It was originally the library, and was built in 1925.
And these photos remind me of the parking nightmares I endured:
My first year at BYU was particularly bad for parking because I worked in the mornings and had classes in the afternoons. I was living at home so I had to drive to campus every day for classes and by afternoon...empty parking spaces were scarce, if they existed at all. At the same time, it seemed like the "A" lots, which were for faculty members only, always had numerous empty spots. Used to frustrate me so much!! When I moved to campus the following year, I loved being able to walk to my classes. My third year I lived off campus but I was still close enough that I walked to campus most of the time. I lived at home again my fourth year (after my mission) but I don't remember parking being as big of a headache then. I think my work schedule was really different (I worked at the MTC instead of McDonald's) and maybe I had just resigned myself to the parking realities by then.
The summer right after Frank and I got married, we lived in an apartment near Provo High School:
I took a couple of classes that summer term of 1992 and I remember walking from this apartment to my classes sometimes (other times, Frank dropped me off). It was a bit of a walk, but not too bad. We moved again that fall (to the place you can see in one of my graduation pictures, earlier in this post) and it was a lot farther away but I think Frank must have dropped me off at school most of the time my last semester. At any rate, I don't remember parking being a big issue then either. (Funny how the more recent years are harder to remember in some ways than the earlier ones.)
Here's an aerial view of the campus looking a lot how it looked during my time at BYU:
It's hard to see, but the Hinckley Building isn't there yet, the Tanner Building doesn't have the addition, the Kimball Tower has been built, and the Widstoe Buidling is still there. The original Joseph Smith Building and Smith Family Living Center are there too.
Here's a more recent aerial view:
Now compare this aerial photo from 1929:
To this recent photo:
From three buildings to a whole hill full of them!
Which leads me to this question:
Did you know that the BYU I knew as a student almost didn't come into existence?
BYU was established October 16, 1875 as BYA--Brigham Young Academy. In those early days, speaking to Academy Principal Karl G. Maeser, Brigham Young said: "Brother Maeser, I want you to remember that you ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God." (I still remember that the first class I ever attended at BYU was a Biology class. It was a huge class, held in an auditorium in the JSB. The teachers lectured by putting slides on an overhead projector. The very first slide on that first day of class was of a scripture from the Doctrine & Covenants. I don't remember which one, just that it somehow related to the sanctity of life, and that this scripture was related to Biology, the study of life. It seems that the charge from Brigham Young has not been forgotten!) The
academy became BYU in 1903. The early years were difficult and financial crises were common. BYU campus started out as a single building campus on University Avenue, between 500 North and 600 North, in Provo. Here is a picture of that one building:
(This building, which fell into disrepair and was nearly torn down more than once, was finally completely restored and renovated, and now houses the Provo City Library.)
In the early 1900s, the student body of BYU raised funds to purchase several acres of land on what was then called Temple Hill. At the time it was covered with farms and orchards. More land was purchased in 1907 to create a space a quarter of a mile wide, extending the campus to the mountains to the east. In 1908, the prophet Joseph F. Smith dedicated "Upper Campus" as it was called at that time. There weren't any buildings on Upper Campus yet. The cornerstone for the Maeser Memorial Building was laid in 1909. But as I said, times were hard. From a devotional address given by then BYU president Jeffrey R. Holland in 1987 comes this story:
"Several years after Brother Maeser’s death a proposal was made to construct a memorial building in his name, not downtown on University Avenue but high atop Temple Hill, where a new campus might be built consisting of as many as three or perhaps four buildings someday. The cost would be an astronomical $100,000, but the Maeser Building would be a symbol of the past, a statement of aspiring tradition, an anchor to the university’s future.
In spite of a staggering financial crisis clouding the very future of the university at the time, the faculty and student body took heart that in 1912 the Maeser Building was at least partially complete and the university would give diplomas to its first four-year graduating class. But even as graduation plans were being made, equally urgent plans were underway to sell the remainder of Temple Hill for the development of a new Provo suburb. The university simply had to have the money to survive. Eighteen members were graduating in this first four-year class, but even if the student body tripled in the years ahead, surely there would be more than enough room to accommodate them on the space now occupied by the Maeser, Brimhall, and Grant buildings on our present campus. Yes, the rest of the space on the hill should be sold. The graduation services would conclude with a sales pitch to the community leaders in attendance.
When Alfred Kelly was introduced that morning as the student graduation speaker, he rose and stood absolutely silent for several moments. Some in the audience thought he had lost the power of speech. Slowly he began to speak, explaining that he had been much concerned over his remarks, that he had written several versions and discarded every one of them.
Then, early one morning, he said, with a feeling of desperation regarding his approaching assignment, he walked north from his downtown apartment to where the partially completed Maeser Building stood (as Horace Cummings would later describe it) as an “air castle” come to earth on Temple Hill. He wanted to gain inspiration from this hope of a new campus, but he felt only grim disappointment. The sky was starting to glow from the morning light, but the darkly silhouetted Maeser Building seemed only a symbol of gloom.
Kelly then turned his eyes to view the valley below that was also still in shadow. The light from the rising sun was just beginning to illuminate the western hills back of Utah Lake with an unusual golden glow. As morning came, the light gradually worked down from the hilltops, moved across the valley floor, and slowly advanced to the spot where Kelly stood.
He said he partially closed his eyes as the light approached and was startled by what he could still see. He stood as if transfixed. In the advancing sunlight everything he saw took on the appearance of people, young people about his age moving toward Temple Hill. He saw hundreds of them, thousands of young people coming into view. He knew they were students, he said, because they carried books in their arms as they came.
Then Temple Hill was bathed in sunlight, and the whole of the present campus was illuminated not with one partially completed building, nor with homes in a modern subdivision, but rather what Kelly described to that graduating class as “temples of learning,” large buildings, beautiful buildings, hundreds of buildings covering the top of that hill and stretching clear to the mouth of Rock Canyon.
The students then entered these temples of learning with their books in hand. As they came out of them, Kelly said their countenances bore smiles of hope and of faith. He observed that they seemed cheerful and very confident. Their walk was light but firm as they again became a part of the sunlight as it moved to the top of Y Mountain, and then they gradually disappeared from view.
Kelly sat down to what was absolutely stone-deaf silence. Not a word was spoken. What about the sales pitch? No one moved or whispered. Then longtime BYU benefactor Jesse Knight jumped to his feet and shouted, “We won’t sell an acre. We won’t sell a single lot.” And he turned to President George Brimhall and pledged several thousand dollars to the future of the university. Soon others stood up and joined in, some offering only a widow’s mite, but all believing in the dream of a Provo schoolboy, all believing the destiny of a great university which that day had scarcely begun."
I love this story! I think the thing I love the most about it is that it was a student (not an administrator or a teacher) who had a vision of what BYU would someday become, and it was his courage to share his vision--rather than the sales pitch he'd been asked to give--that made the vision come true. Thousands and thousands of students like him--me included-- have been the beneficiaries of his courageous choice.
President Holland continued his address by saying:
"When you leave here today, consider a campus that now stretches from that newly renovated Maeser Building to the very mouth of Rock Canyon itself where a special temple of learning (built on BYU property) watches by night and day over this very pleasant valley. Think of the buildings and think of the lives and think of the tradition. It is now your tradition."
I think this has a lot to do with why I love BYU so much. It is part of my tradition. My years at BYU helped shape who I am today. It's an important part of my personal history, a part I am very grateful for, and a part that I never want to forget.
