Having grown up in Louisville and getting my education there, I don’t have a strong connection to the University of Kansas. But over the years, I’ve grown to love going over for football and women’s basketball games and getting more familiar with the enchanting town of Lawrence.
As many times as I’ve been there, however, I’d never really spent significant time in the heart of the campus. It always seemed a bit intimidating — ascending what looks, below from the east, like a mountain and trying to sort out which numbered streets yield access to the guts of the campus.
The tallest building on campus, seven-story Fraser Hall, has always loomed alluringly for me as I’ve approached Lawrence on I-70. Once I spot that stone bulwark in the distance, flags flying from the top, I feel a rush…I’m almost there! The fun and exhilaration of being in a big-time college town is just minutes away!
Until yesterday, though, I’d never been inside Fraser Hall, nor, for that matter, any of the other buildings along Jayhawk Boulevard, i.e., “Main Street KU.”
What took me to Lawrence yesterday was a determination to buy a suit at Weaver’s, Ninth and Mass — the best damn department store in the world, as far as I’m concerned.
I was in no rush on this mission, however, having the luxury of the entire afternoon to do my business. So, when I spotted Fraser Hall, through a misting ran, looming on the horizon, I determined this would be the day I explored the campus.
First, though, I parked on Vermont, a block west of Massachusetts, and had lunch at the widely known — and justifiably so — WheatFields bakery. It was a short walk to Weaver’s, where I spent $500 on a navy, Revelino suit and a pair of Peter Millar pants. (That’s more than I would have paid in Kansas City, but, what the hell — I was caught up in the exuberance of a fall day in Lawrence.)
Once back in the car, I headed south on Vermont, looking for a street to take me west, up the big hill to campus center. I turned on a numbered street that had a significant amount of traffic — I think it was 12th — and began the ascent. Pretty soon I was at the dead-end intersection of Jayhawk Boulevard, amid a sea of foot traffic and a nonstop flow of belching, crimson and blue buses carrying students from one place to another.
A friendly lady at a traffic-control booth adjacent to Fraser Hall directed me to a nearby parking lot, cheerily announcing,
“It’s free today!”
Once liberated from the car, I couldn’t have been more excited if I’d been magically deposited on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. The street was boiling with energy. Some students were scurrying about, others were just hanging out. And all the while, the buses rolled along in what seemed like a continuous, mobilized  procession…I couldn’t imagine Michigan Avenue carrying any more buses than what I was seeing.
As I walked, I took in the buildings — most of them stone and some with deep-red terra cotta trim.
From there…well, it’s time to let the pictures tell the story…
One of the many “Crimson and Blue” buses transporting students and others
In front of the Kansas Union building
From outside, the student union is not very imposing. But it is actually massive. The main entrance (here) is on the fourth level. Because the campus sits on a big hill, there are three levels below, in addition to the two above the entry level.
Just the kind of scene you would expect in a student union building
The vast bookstore is on the second level of the student union building.
This is Smith Hall, which houses the religious studies school.
The Oread hotel, at the north end of Jayhawk Blvd.
Dyche Hall, which houses the university’s Natural History Museum
A serene setting along otherwise busy Jayhawk Boulevard — Danforth Chapel
Lippincott Hall was the first home of the university’s first law school. Now it houses the study abroad program, the Applied English Center and the Wilcox Classical Museum of antiquities.
Imposing Fraser Hall towers above Jayhawk Boulevard and the nearby building. It houses the schools of psychology, sociology and anthropology.
Consisting mostly of classrooms, Fraser was named in honor of John Fraser, KU’s second chancellor, who served from 1867 to 1874.
From its seventh-floor top, Fraser affords spectacular views of the campus and the surrounding area. At left is the Campanile — bell tower. (Its bells chime every fifteen minutes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.) At right, of course, is Memorial Stadium.
Lookin north on Jayhawk Boulevard, toward The Oread. That’s Dyche Hall on the left; the Kansas Union just north of it; Danforth Chapel at near right and Spooner Hall, right middle.
And so ended a memorable day on a bustling little street brimming with life. If you haven’t been there, I urge you to go. I guarantee you’ll love it.
Ah yes, the 7th floor of Fraser Hall, home of the sociology department. How well I remember the horrendous hike up the hill to the campus (which I later learned to avoid by feigning a status as a computer repairman). Then Smith Hall, a building that former Chancellor Hemenway coerced the Christian Church into selling the university for a pittance of its actual value. And then the new Oread where yet another scandal is slowly being uncovered by the LJ-World concerning the shenanigans between a local banker and the developer proving the need for investigative journalists every and anywhere you go if you just know where to look.
I once attended a wedding at Danforth Chapel, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who it was — some KCStar connection.
What’s the story on the tag stuck haphazardly on the Jayhawk sign?
Somebody had put a sticker on it…Oddly, the sticker said, “Gayle, you are so hot!”
Well, I think that’s what it said, anyway…