100 years ago (1904)
A two-story firehouse, built behind the Quad on what is now Santa Teresa Street, was equipped with two engines, a hand-operated hook-and-ladder wagon, four ladders, hoses, axes, buckets and other apparatus. Five students received free accommodations upstairs in exchange for work as firefighters. A coded signal from a loud steam whistle at the power house specified the location of an emergency.
At the Big Game, the Stanford rooting section formed a large block S by strategically placing students who were wearing white hats and shirts. (At later games, the fans spelled LSJU.) This innovation evolved into complex “card stunts” at Stanford and the University of California.
75 years ago (1929)
The 30-year-old Toonerville Trolley that connected Stanford to Palo Alto was abandoned, a victim of the popularity of private automobiles. The electric streetcar line had run along Galvez Street to Encina Hall and beyond, making a sweeping arc in the area of today’s Sweet Hall. It then followed Panama Street behind the Quad, ending near the current Roble Gym. Stealing rides in streetcars, known as the “Yellow Perils,” was a time-honored tradition until the Peninsula Railway arranged for operators to be deputized.
50 years ago (1954)
With financial backing from the Ford Foundation, the independent Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences opened its headquarters in the Foothills behind campus. Alta Vista, the 50-year-old Victorian mansion of the Charles G. Lathrop family, had been demolished to make way for the center. Lathrop, a brother of Jane Stanford, was an officer and trustee of the University until his death in 1914.
Emanuel B. “Sam” McDonald, superintendent of athletics buildings and grounds, retired September 1 after 51 years of service. Friends gave him a new car at a banquet in his honor, and the Stanford Press published his autobiography, Sam McDonald’s Farm. He started at Stanford at age 19 as a teamster hauling gravel for campus roads.
25 years ago (1979)
Alexander Calder’s 3-ton metal stabile Le Faucon (The Falcon) was installed in the Law School courtyard, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Lang of Seattle. It was part of an extensive outdoor art program headed by art professor Albert Elsen.
The heaviest load yet carried over U.S. highways—a 107-ton doughnut-shaped superconducting electromagnet—arrived at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center from Chicago. The load, on 120 wheels, traveled at 25 mph and took up two traffic lanes. It was to be used in the new Positron Electron Project.
Karen Bartholomew, ’71, writes this column on behalf of the Stanford Historical Society (histsoc.stanford.edu).
