Monday, August 11, 2008

Chicago's Navy Pier-- Not Always Fun and Games

The August 3rd Chicago TribuneMagazine's Flashback was about Navy Pier back before it was today's fun park and even before Chicagofest took place in the 70s.

Before that, it was home to the University of Illinois' two-year Chicago branch which was started in 1946 to serve returning WW II veterans and commuters.

Nancy Watkins said the campus was little more than a "5/8ths mile-long hallway." An learnuing conditions weren't exactly wonderful. Classrooms were cramped and dingy, hot in the summer and cold in the winter and rain leaked through the walls and roof. Birds nested in the library rafters which brought an earlyuse of white-out.

19-- years it remained at Navy Pier before moving to UIC

Nicknames-- "Harvard on the Rocks", the "Horizontal Cathedral of Learning", the "Sideways Skyscraper," "Navy Pier Illini."--pretty good nicknames if you ask me.

Square Feet Per Student-- 93. At Champaign: 240.


Get Your Education Where You Can. --Cooter

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