I was given this book of pictures by a friend who found it in his grandfather's house after he passed last year. He thinks it belonged to his great grandfather who was in WWI and likely knew the guys who took the pictures. It was published in 1921 and is in shockingly good condition for being almost 100 years old. I thought yall would enjoy seeing this.












Each picture has a protective page like this one on top of it with a description of what is in the photo. I typed what they say on the rest instead of including an extra picture of the cover sheet.


"The Administrative Building, Physics Laboratories, and Lecture Amphitheater inclosing Academic Court with Dormitory group in the background."



"The Academic Court, Cloisters and Sally Port, "Nature's Own Parade Ground.""



"Mechanical Laboratory, Machine Shop and Power House with the lofty campanile towering above"



"Looking south over the campanile"



"Residential Halls and Commons with Athletic Field and Tennis Courts in the background."



"Field House and Athletic Field from Main street side."



"Athletic Field during Rice-A. & M. game Armistice Day with ten thousand spectators filling the stands." [Not mentioned in the book: Rice and A&M ended up tying this game 7-7, 11/11/1921]



"Looking over East Hall at Administrative group."



"Residential Halls and Commons looking east and Autry House across Main Street."



"The Autry House, the Owl and Main Street Boulevard."



"General view of buildings with Houston in the background."

Thanks for sharing.

Great find! You should contact Melissa Kean, Rice History Corner, http://www.ricehistorycorner.com. I expect she would be thrilled to at least get copies of this, if she doesn't already have them.

Those are amazing. I love that building on the Main Street side of the track. It would be great to have a nice Main Street entrance to the Track/Soccer Stadium.

Really cool, thanks! Does anybody know what The Owl was in the next to final photo, beside Autry House? Was it a private restaurant or bar?

On a side note, I think we missed a golden opportunity to design the Patterson Sports Performance Center as a throwback to that original fieldhouse. Scrap the porch, integrate the columns into the window wall, and add small tile roofs at either end and it would be there.

A little refreshment stand apparently.

https://ricehistorycorner.com/2011/04/13/the-owl/

(01-14-2020 04:43 PM)lou Wrote:  I was given this book of pictures by a friend who found it in his grandfather's house after he passed last year. He thinks it belonged to his great grandfather who was in WWI and likely knew the guys who took the pictures. It was published in 1921 and is in shockingly good condition for being almost 100 years old. I thought yall would enjoy seeing this.

Lou -- Indeed, yes!!

Your scans of the photos look a lot sharper than those that were reprinted in "a complete reproduction of the text and the
photographs" of "The Flying Owls" book in the Fall 2000 issue of "The Cornerstone," the publication of the Rice Historical Society: https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/h...ll2000.pdf

Wow -- amazing to see the original campus when set out in the flat coastal prairie.
Thanks for sharing this rare find.

Love that cover. Thanks for sharing.

I emailed Melissa about this book, but I assume she's got a copy already. I made the images smaller on this post, but if anyone wants a higher res they can be seen at this link: https://imgur.com/a/SXyvGIc

I made a dumb post about the physics amphitheater (then took it down right away) because it all looked different with nothing else there. But what really gets me is the great empty expanse that is now the Texas Medical Center.

(01-14-2020 06:30 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Those are amazing. I love that building on the Main Street side of the track. It would be great to have a nice Main Street entrance to the Track/Soccer Stadium.

That was the Fieldhouse, I believe, and it was on a very bad foundation (no surprise).

(01-15-2020 07:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  

(01-14-2020 06:30 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Those are amazing. I love that building on the Main Street side of the track. It would be great to have a nice Main Street entrance to the Track/Soccer Stadium.

That was the Fieldhouse, I believe, and it was on a very bad foundation (no surprise).

That gully runs under where that was built. If I win a big lottery, I'd love to help build that again - with modern construction methods to prevent foundation problems.

(01-15-2020 08:45 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(01-15-2020 07:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  

(01-14-2020 06:30 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Those are amazing. I love that building on the Main Street side of the track. It would be great to have a nice Main Street entrance to the Track/Soccer Stadium.

That was the Fieldhouse, I believe, and it was on a very bad foundation (no surprise).

That gully runs under where that was built. If I win a big lottery, I'd love to help build that again - with modern construction methods to prevent foundation problems.

Can you rebuild the old football stadium with a nice track in it, too?

Really appreciated the post and seeing the old dorm again!

(01-15-2020 08:45 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(01-15-2020 07:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  

(01-14-2020 06:30 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Those are amazing. I love that building on the Main Street side of the track. It would be great to have a nice Main Street entrance to the Track/Soccer Stadium.

That was the Fieldhouse, I believe, and it was on a very bad foundation (no surprise).

That gully runs under where that was built. If I win a big lottery, I'd love to help build that again - with modern construction methods to prevent foundation problems.

The photo in OP shows that Harris Gully was northeast of the old fieldhouse.