Mathews You Can't Refuse

I never imagined I would miss the daily commute. Half the point of working from home is not having to get in your car and face weather and traffic and too many commercials on the radio. I stumble out of the shower, throw on some clothes, and sit down in front of my computer in the morning. I am at work. At the end of the day, I close the Remote Desktop Connection and stand up. I am home. I didn't realize I used the morning commute to mentally transition into my work day and the afternoon commute to decompress. My new transitions are unsatisfactory.

To make up for this, I pick Ainers up from school every day. She takes the bus in the morning around the same time I sit down at my computer and instead of coming home as soon as her last class ends, she waits for me to roll up in the Yaris. This benefits her because she maintains a nine to five day and gets the bulk of her work done before she comes home. She's not up all hours of the night translating.

This benefits me because I get my commute back. Every day around five I leave my place of employment, a tired, spastic Publishing Coordinator. When I pull back into our parking space, I am a relaxed husband, coming home from work.

I spend a portion of every day parked on the same block of Mathews Avenue, waiting for Aine to gather her things and hop in the elevator. Here's what I see.

Foreign Language Building
The University broke ground on the FLB in 1968 and finished the building in 1971. They built it on the site of the Old Entomology Building. That's the study of bugs. Aine thinks it's the ugliest building on campus, but I like it. It looks like an inverted step pyramid jammed into the ground.

The story goes, that the building housed a Super Computer in the basement called Plato and the architects designed it to fall outward if blown up by the Soviets. Meanwhile, the interior layout was supposed to confuse Soviet spies if they ever infiltrated the FLB.

Look at the basement. You can imagine some Top Secret Cold War stuff going on down here.

The truth is somewhat less romantic. The architectural style, known as the International Style, with its boxy, cantilevered construction, was popular in the late 60s/early 70s and, in fact, you can find a smaller building in the same style a few blocks over. Plato was the name of an e-learning system used by the language department and the actual mainframe sat in a building on the other side of campus.

See the inside. Each floor stair steps up to a clerestory that lights the entire interior space.

Despite what Aine says, I find the building very intriguing.

Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
I couldn't find much information on the first of the three buildings across Mathews from the FLB. All I can say is the steeply pitched Gambrel roof with dormer windows and the Palladian-style window in the gable give away this Dutch Colonial Revival. I don't think the window units or security camera were originally part of this building. They were probably added later. Most Dutch Colonial Revivals only have two stories, making this one unique.

The Nesbitt Center provides support for African American culture and leadership in the campus community.

Alpha Omicron Pi House
Sorority girls live in this house next to Bruce Nesbitt. The very clearly Tudor Revival was built in 1927 specifically for the sorority and was enlarged in 1985.

The AOP has no national motto. Each chapter chooses its own submotto. The submotto of this, the Iota chapter, goes: "Alike and Nobleness of Mind." Whatever that means. Their official color is cardinal and their flower is the Jacqueminot Rose. Let me tell you why that's funny. Jessie Wallace Hughan, the founder of the sorority, was a renowned pacifist and outspoken opponent of both World Wars. The rose's namesake, General Jacqueminot, served under Napoleon and distinguished himself in the battle of Austerlitz where the French army slaughtered 40% of the Russian army in a single day.

Also, their unofficial mascot is the panda.

The most famous member of this sorority, Aneta Corsaut, played Andy Griffith's sweetheart Helen Crump.

Channing Murray Building
This building began its life in 1908 as a Unitarian Church. The Unitarians are a sort of unProtestant sect who don't believe original sin, eternal damnation, or the Trinity. They believe Jesus was a human prophet, not the Son of God, and that the Bible was written by humans and subject to error. Famous Unitarians include Founding Fathers and pen pals, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

If you see the half timbering, stucco cladding, square Palladian windows, and steeply pitched roof and guess that this building is a Tudor Revival, then you are correct. And smarter than I was.

The Channing Murray Foundation is a Unitarian organization that holds workshops, classes, and other community outreach programs. Downstairs you'll find a vegetarian restaurant and coffee shop called the Red Herring. This old Unitarian Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Parting Shot

On campus, even the fire hydrants dress to impress.