“If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.” ~ Carlos Santana
Ruth and I sometimes walk together to the parking garage at day’s end. Today, we neared Limestone Street when she began to tell me about the two large columns on either side of the university drive at Limestone. Just this morning I’d wondered about these columns. Construction is rebuilding one sidewalk, taking out the shrubbery, making one column obvious to see. Coincidentally, Ruth, university archivist, had gotten a reference request today about the column’s origins. The earliest evidence of the their existence is 1906. The columns marked the main entrance to campus. They were flanked by the classic Kentucky white paddock fencing, which is about five feet tall. Each column anchored an iron gate only slightly taller than the fence. The columns weren’t much taller. By 1920, however, the gate and fencing were gone, and the columns were the height they are today. You can see a square iron stud still in the stone where the gates used to be. It is, as yet, unclear why the gates were dismantled; why the column height was raised; or why they remained erect after the main entrance was moved elsewhere on campus. What is clear, however, is that Ruth has a cool job. Who wouldn’t enjoy finding these hidden answers?
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