{"id":2848,"date":"2018-10-18T10:32:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T14:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=2848"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:14","slug":"time-capsule-1903","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2018\/10\/time-capsule-1903\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Capsule: 1903"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today it\u2019s a nondescript, grassed-over stretch between Massey Hall (pictured above in 1910) and Winegard Walk. But for the first half of the 1900s, the campus water reservoir attracted passersby, and even swimmers and skaters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Measuring 100 by 60 feet and about 10 feet deep, the pool was installed in 1897 for a practical reason. The year before, a fire had razed the former chemistry building that stood directly south of Johnston Hall. Administrators decided to install the reservoir as extra fire protection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence about three feet high, the pool also became a decorative feature, particularly when tea roses planted around it were in bloom (hence its name as the Rose Bowl). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides its practical and aesthetic qualities, the Rose Bowl served as a makeshift recreational pool. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reservoir was used for its intended purpose more than once, including helping extinguish a blaze in the Creelman dining hall. But the pool also presented a hazard; two drownings occured: a child in 1916 and a student in 1930.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 1956, the campus no longer needed the Rose Bowl, and it was filled in.<\/span><\/p>\n

ON CAMPUS<\/strong><\/h3>\n