In July 2021 I did a post on Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, TN. The campus is small, but very nice. In addition to great looking historic structures, the library there is fantastic. FHU was authorized by the state of Tennessee on November 30, 1869. Classes began two years later in 1871. As noted in that post, FHU struggled a bit in its formative years. For the most part, serious issues came to an end thanks to the work of two individuals: alumnus Nicholas Brodie Hardeman and community member Arvy Freed. Through their work to create what they called the National Teachers Normal and Business College in 1907 the institution stayed afloat. They bought the land at the corner of Main and Cason Street where FHU remains. The college would later be named in their honor as Freed-Hardeman College in 1919; it was changed to the current Freed-Hardeman University in 1990. 

A few days ago, reader Alice Brown posted that she had a photo of the Pratt, O'Neal, and Hardeman houses on Cason Street taken some time in the 1900’s. You may recall that there are two older homes at FHU Cason Street that have been converted to university spaces. The Thomas-Landon House is on Cason Street near the library. The Joy Simon McDaniel House which has the dean’s office for the Honor’s College and other administrative offices is nearby. I wrote to Alice about the photo, and she sent me a copy to share here. She writes:

“Attached is the best photo I have.  I am not absolutely certain whose house is whose, so I wouldn't post that initially.  I think the left one is the Pratt house, middle Hardeman, and right O'Neal.  The middle house has since then been demolished. I have a photo circa 1912 of O'Neal children with a pony in front of the house on the right (from looking at porch banisters and window frames).  You will notice from my photo that the central porch extension with double height columns on the right house has been removed.  Maybe some historian at Freed Hardeman or Henderson might be able to correct me if I am mistaken.

You can see the families on Cason St in the 1910 census (and before and after partially).  They were all merchants, but I think did banking on the side.  The census didn't have the street address, just the sequence of families surveyed.”

This is wonderful information, and the photo is fantastic! I truly appreciate the information and for her sharing the photo (all rights reserved to Alice). 
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If you find yourself in Henderson, swing by the campus and take a stroll. While you are at it, take in the sights of the quaint town. The people there are kind and welcoming.

This is a different kind of post as it's only partially related to the topic of the blog. I was in the Denver International Airport on my way to Bozeman, MT, when I had to change terminals. When I went down to the train level to make the transfer, I saw this statue of astronaut John "Jack" Swigert. I immediately recognized it as the same as the one inside McDonnell Douglas Hall at Saint Louis University. I knew this statue was in the airport, but I didn't make the connection to SLU until this day. It does seem bigger than the one at SLU, but that may be a combination of it being on a pedestal or perhaps my memory is a bit blurred a year later as to just how big the one in Saint Louis is. Many universities have statues that are unique (meaning they have the only one), but of course that is not always the case. The famous statue of Will Rogers and his horse Soapsuds at my doctoral alma mater Texas Tech is one of three castings of the same mold. Anyway, here is Jack Swigert again. 

I believe I may be turning into Imelda Marcos. Younger readers may need to Google her name to get the reference. I do not, as yet, have 3,000 to 4,200 pairs of shoes like Mrs. Marcos, but as fate would have it, I now have three pairs of Texas Tech sneakers. I've posted about the other two pair previously (see here and here). They're both in the style of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars. This new pair, a gift from my family for my birthday, is not quite as ornate as the others. None the less, I'm happy to add my new Texas Tech Under Armor shoes to my collection. I may have a problem, but I like to think I'm just a proud alum. Don't judge.

Earlier this year, I posted about finding a lapel pin for the College of Oak Ridge while doing some online browsing. I had never heard of the proposed college prior to finding that pin but my interest was piqued, and I have kept my eye out for more information about the school. As fate would have it, while once again perusing the web I made another find. Below are a few photos of a prospectus for the college from March 1965. I did not want to scan the entire document, but the plan it presented was both well thought out and quite ambitious. Aside from a glass ring on the cover and a little touch of rust on the binding staples it's in great shape. I really do like the seal! The oak leaves harkening back to Oak Ridge, the atom reflecting the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the torch reminiscent of the one held by University of Tennessee's Torchbearer in nearby Knoxville. 

It is a shame the college never really came to be, and in reading this document I could only imagine the disappointment of those involved in trying to get it off the ground. I am still on the lookout for a CoOR tie bar and Founder's Card.

I was in Louisville, KY right before the New Year on a family trip. Louisville is home to several colleges and universities and within a short drive of quite a few. In several respects, the area is not unlike the Memphis metropolitan area where I live. Both cities are in the 1.3 to 1.4 million range of total metropolitan population, and both are river cities. Memphis is in the southwest corner of Tennessee, and the metropolitan area extends across the state borders of both Mississippi (to the south) and Arkansas (to the west across the Mississippi River). The metro Louisville extends the Indiana border to the north across the Ohio River. In both cases, there are colleges just across the border. In Louisville’s case, the eight institutions in the metro area are part of a consortium called the Kentuckiana Metroversity. It is an interesting organization in that students at any member institution can take classes at the others. One of the institutions is Indiana University Southeast, which is located a less than five miles from Louisville as the crow flies and about ten miles driving distance.
 
I knew all of that before we took this trip, but what I didn’t know was that IU Southeast has a presence in Jeffersonville, IN, which is literally just across the Ohio River from downtown. We hopped across the river so our sons could see the fossil beds located in and around the Ohio on the Indiana side. If you are unfamiliar with Louisville, an ancient reef is exposed by the Ohio there, and you can literally walk along the riverside and see fossils in the rocks. It is a really neat thing to see and there is a nice park on the Indiana side which also provides great views of the Louisville skyline and of the many UPS cargo planes landing and taking off from the airport. We crossed the river on the Clark Memorial Bridge and as we exited in Jeffersonville, we saw a unit of IU Southeast.
 
What you see here is the IU Southeast Graduate Center. It is home to classrooms and some offices and is a location for classes in business and education. Obviously, this is a rented facility and not a permanent fixture, but I wanted to share it both because I didn’t know it was there and because it reflects something very common in higher education today. Many institutions have graduate centers in metropolitan areas far away from their main campuses. Working adults frequently want to further their educations and grad centers offer institutions the ability to tap into this population and provide options that might not otherwise exist. Virginia Tech, for example, has a campus in Washington DC, and George Washington University, which is located in DC, has a campus in the Virginia suburb Ashburn.
 
Other than learning that it is a grad center, I was unable to find out when the unit was located here or anything else about it. The area is home to several older structures which have been renovated and are now used for offices, retail, and some museum space. I will leave the history and other information about the main campus of IU Southeast for another time.

This is not the best photo in the world, I know. Just keep in mind that it was taken from my car at a stoplight with my phone!