Campus Maps

Ashland College In the 1960's

The state of the Ashland College campus about 1965. Redwood Stadium is still standing along King Road, with the old gym still visible in the south end zone. And Redwood Dining Hall and the Science Center appear to have been completed.

The state of the campus in about 1968. Even then they had managed to almost entirely destroy their heritage. Against all odds the old building in the lower right corner (Miller Hall - 1922) managed to last until after the millennium,. But even those 40+ additional years were not enough to save it from the wrecking ball in 2010; leaving (amazingly) the post WWII buildings (Memorial Chapel - 1951, the old student union - 1953, Jacobs Hall - 1954, Founders Hall -1955) as the oldest on campus. Technically the Maintenance Building (upper right and built in 1924) is the oldest but it was originally a Pontiac Dealership. You would be hard pressed to find another institution dating back to the 19th century (in the same location since 1878) that has so successfully eliminated any and all physical traces of its heritage.

Of course the institution has not just destroyed all traces of its original campus but all traces of the surrounding neighborhoods. Only a handful of houses in the lower left corner are still standing, the others have been replaced with huge parking lots. The campus grew to the east, west, and south - obliterating well kept and bucolic residential streets; with minimal growth to the north where dilapidated residential areas and the dying downtown were just begging to be gobbled up by the college. Go figure.

The natatorium building is still on campus but was repurposed years ago into one of the campus utility complexes.

For my money it is one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere.

Both of these are 1955 maps of campus. Most remarkable 60 years later is how much the campus has grown and how many building have been demolished as part of this growth process. I lived in Oxford in 2002 and 2003 and during a 2018 visit I found many sections of the campus virtually unrecognizable, and others total time capsules.