Campus from Yesteryear

 

By: Patrick Ross

 

Asbury has had many changes over the years, and it is still continuing to change. There have been some major changes especially in the buildings that are on campus now, from the 1950s and 1960s.

Wesley Hall, The Library, CPO, and the Grille, and the Dine-a-Mite have all had many other activities to offer in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Wesley Hall, which no longer exist on campus, was a Dormitory on campus that was mostly for boys until World War II, and then at that point a lot of the men were drafted to go off to war. So at that point it was a girls dorm for a while, where the campus was mostly made up of women, since the men were at war, and once the men returned, It was built in 1910, named after John Wesley, the preacher, and was made out of white brick. Eventually, they painted the bricks red, to match the other campus buildings. It was located in the field where the original Asbury building sits.

The Library used to be, where the student center is located now. “When the library was located in that building the media center was in the basement. The Library was named after one of the former president’s Henry Clay Morrison, and then they added more room in 1958, and named it after Mr. Jay Kenyon, a Dean over the students attending Asbury. Once Kinlaw Library was built in 2001, the old library sat empty for about six years until the students said we need a place to hangout, so then the building became the student center, where you can play games, drink a milkshake, or a place to make new friends.

The CPO building was used in the 1950s as a gymnasium, and even a swimming pool which was located on the upper floor. The Bookstore and CPO was on the lower level of the building. Many sporting events were held in there. Men and women were not allowed in the pool at the same time. When it came to swimming, if there was swimming in the pool, the women were only allowed to swim with other women, and men were only allowed to swim with other men. One point in time the theatre program was hosted in here.
Asbury Students before 2007, did not have the student center to hang out in, so the grille, located above the cafeteria, was the place where the people of Asbury had to hang out. There was mostly just sitting areas, but when students did not have cars on campus this was a hoppin’ place.

There still is a utility tunnel under the sidewalk from the front of the cafeteria to Jewell Street. This tunnel contained many things such as the wires to the class bells, clock control wires, among many other things. When the library was in the student center, which is where everything was until they built the tunnel. As far as time goes, this tunnel still exists!

Dine-a-mite was a snack bar that existed on campus for many years, located beside Johnson Dormitory, and in front of what is now the Kinlaw Library, was definitely a hopping place in the 1950s, people went there to get milkshakes, burgers and fries. Sometimes you would even see couples in there sharing a milkshake with two straws. This restaurant became demolished in 1970. There was a faculty parking lot built in its place. A few past recent years, there was a remembrance of the Dine-a-mite at one of the class reunions. They even made glasses and gave away as memorabilia.

The Administration Building, Hughes Auditorium, Glide-Crawford Dormitory was around, Trustees Dormitory, and Johnson were around, but still being remolded throughout until the 1970s.