Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
A couple weeks ago, the Campus Archaeology Program discovered the northeast foundation of College Hall, the first building built on MSU’s campus. Next week, on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd, the Campus Archaeology Program will return to the site to see just how …
Last week, Campus Archaeology performed survey at Beaumont Tower, to investigate the area below sidewalks that were being replaced. Underneath sidwalks located under the southeast corner of Beaumont, foundation stones were located. There is little doubt that these stones are the original foundations of College …
The Campus Archaeology Program will be performing Phase I survey at Beaumont Tower tomorrow, September 16. This was the site of the original classroom building that was built in 1856 called College Hall.
It served as a classroom and laboratory building, and by 1916, plans were made to reconstruct this building into a Student Union. However, it turned out the building was built on wood planks, one corner used part of a tree stump as a foundation, the brick walls were hollow, and the bricks were soft due to their homemade construction. In August of 1918, while the marching band played the Star Spangled Banner at a war trainee retreat, the building collapsed. It was later replaced by the Beaumont Tower to commemorate the beginnings of the college.
Landscape Services is removing sidewalks all throughout West Circle, and will be replacing sidewalks next to the Tower. This will provide Campus Archaeology a chance to survey near the building and underneath these sidewalks, before the new cement is poured.
As always, please stop by and pay us a visit, or follow our updates on Twitter or Facebook!
Author: Terry Brock