Middle Path
From KCpedia
Contents |
Origins
Middle Path, though never built as part of the original planning, was first conceived by Philander Chase. He had designed a double avenue--then twice as wide as the thoroughfare in the center of the village--that was to be broken up into squares in the English style ("Bexley Square", "Sutton Square", etc.). However, his plans never came to fruition and footpaths and animal trails made up the Kenyon walkways until David Bates Douglass arrived.
President Douglass "was appalled at the slovenly condition of the college grounds when he arrived. He found Old Kenyon in a filthy and dilapidated state, but what was most distressing to him was to discover that there were no established walks or drives on the campus. Haphazard paths wound among fallen trees and woodpiles with their scatterings of sawdust and bark. Cows and pigs wandered about, adding their own byways to the general confusion" ("The Middle Path--Gambier's Broadway" by Thomas B. Greenslade K'31 in The Gambier Journal).
Douglass swept Chase's original plans aside and built a path ten feet wide that terminated fifteen hundred feet north of the college to Wiggin Street. The original Middle Path ended at the Gates of the College. A picket fence extended straight east and west from the Gates, marking off the campus. To make the Path, earth was removed two feet deep and a foundation of coarse broken stone was laid down with gravel on top. Most of the labor was contributed by students of the college. Soon after Middle Path was constructed, students planted two rows of hard maples on either side under the direction of Professor Ross.
Improvements
Middle Path was extended through the village to the steps of Bexley Hall in 1860 under the supervision of Bishop Gregory Thurston Bedell. He paid for most of the work himself and wanted the path to be known as the "Bishop's Walk", but the name did not last. In 1864 he proposed that the, in terms of upkeep, the college would see to Middle Path if the Gambier village trustees saw to the streets on either side of it.
Gas lamposts were not installed until the 1890's and electric ones not until 1921. Decent lighting was not provided until the 60's.
Maintenance of the path is a constant headache for the college but all efforts to have Middle Path permanently paved have met with violent disapproval from both the student body and Gambier residents. The gravel path has become as much a symbol of Kenyon College as Old Kenyon.
Traditions
Many traditions have been formed around Middle Path and new ones are being created all the time. Freshmen used to have to leapfrog over the center post in the Gates of the College, and fraternity brothers made it a proud ritual to sing at least four songs on their walk back from their lodges to Old Kenyon after their Tuesday night meetings. Starting in 1978, seniors at Commencement started walking down the path with the faculty lined up on either side. In 1981, the practice was expanded to include incoming freshmen at Opening Convocation.
"Thus the path not only joins the ends of Kenyon's campus, but experiences on the Path enclose both ends of a Kenyon undergraduate career."
Resources in the Kenyon College Archives
- Middle Path -- collected materials (oversize)
