The view from Lyons Hall, September 29, 2010 (top), and October 29, 2010 (bottom). Photographs: Lee Pellegrini

On October 4, barrier fences went up and trees came down on the Dustbowl, that swath of Middle Campus green framed by McElroy Commons, Fulton and Lyons halls, and a (now defunct) parking lot. The changes are to make room for Stokes Hall, a winged, four-story, 36-classroom, academic building scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

No one knows exactly why or when the Dustbowl acquired its name—it was part of the roughly 31-acre parcel of the Lawrence Farm purchased in 1907, and the site is believed to have been a piggery. What is known is that for 103 years it has been the University’s private backyard, a place for barbecues and music, for protests, ceremonies, and athletics, some organized.

A new green, to be framed by Stokes, Carney, McGuinn, and Fulton, will be smaller by about a third—roughly the size of a football field—and it too will acquire character from its surroundings. For now, let us recall what the old piece of land saw:

• June 18, 1913: The first Chestnut Hill Commencement occurred at what was then called University Heights. The graduating class of 79 was the largest in the school’s 50-year history. Graduating senior Francis Phelan won a $50 prize for his essay “Miracles and Prophecies as Evidences of Divine Revelation.”
• October 30, 1915: More than 3,000 fans turned out at the site for the dedication of Alumni Field to “the encouragement of manly sports.” The field was circled by a cinder track, which was lined by wooden stands with a capacity of 2,200, which quickly turned out to be inadequate. Popular matchups (against, say, Holy Cross) were moved off campus—to Fenway Park, Braves Field, or Harvard Stadium.
• November 27, 1918: Major General Clarence Edwards, commander of the 26th “Yankee” Division in World War I, Massachusetts Governor Samuel McCall, and Boston College President Charles Lyons, SJ, reviewed a parade of cadets from the Boston College Student Army Training Corps. The cadets marched by platoons and then, according to the Boston Globe, were sent around the field “in double quick time with their band.” Some 750 men comprised this corps—only a few of them Boston College students. Demobilization occurred December 13.
• June 23, 1920: More than 3,000 guests came to see a record 131 students graduate this Wednesday. Student speakers warned against “the oppressive fanaticisms of the prohibitionists” and the “all-centralizing power at Washington.”
• May 10, 1924: The University hosted “Olympic Day,” a fundraiser for U.S. Track and Field. Rain dampened attendance, and a dog’s unexpected entrance in the 5,000-meter race complicated the process of determining the winner.
• October 1,1932: The football field was rededicated after the stands were enlarged to seat 12,500. The following year, another 4,000 seats were added before the Holy Cross game, which attracted 20,000 fans on December 2.
• September 23, 1945: Cardinal Richard Cushing presided over a Catholic Youth Organization–sponsored Sunday Holy Hour service for 45,000—the Boston Archdiocese’s largest religious event to that date and likely the largest crowd then or since at the corner of Beacon Street and College Road.
• September 24, 1955: Eight thousand fans attended the final football game at Alumni Field, a 27–0 rain-soaked Homecoming win against Brandeis.
• June 13, 1956: The final Commencement at Alumni Field—the University’s 80th—took place that Wednesday. According to the Boston Herald, a crowd of 12,000 gathered as 1,052 seniors and 259 graduate students received degrees. The speaker, Senator John F. Kennedy, urged graduates to get involved in politics, using “your own cool judgment.”
• March 28, 1966: After a dinner of veal cutlet sandwiches with tomato sauce, students marched out of the McElroy dining facilities (constructed in 1961) in protest. (“Happiness is Your Supper,” read one banner during four days of demonstrations.) Students and administrators agreed to changes that included a pay-as-you-go plan and a new catering service, which started the next month.
• March 31, 1966: Tackling the Dustbowl’s annual spring “quagmire,” the University’s director of facilities announced the planting of trees, shrubs, and new turf to create a “Park.”
• April 13, 1970: Students launched a protest of a planned $500 increase to the $2,000 tuition. On May 5, following the shootings at Kent State, they voted to end their tuition strike (agreeing that two students would serve as voting members of a new budget committee and that tuition would go up $240 in 1970–71) and joined a nationwide strike against the escalation of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. University President W. Seavey Joyce, SJ, spoke in favor of this protest: “I share the outrage and alienation of young people at this pointless war.”
• March 28, 1984: “Awareness Day,” billed as the first annual event to celebrate the University’s past, offered students the chance to don cassocks and Roman collars and be photographed with a Polaroid camera as “Jesuit of the Year.”
• April 11, 1988: Festivities for the school’s 125th anniversary kicked off with a barbecue on the Dustbowl, decked out for the occasion with a gazebo, park benches, a jazz band, and students in Civil War–era attire. To promote volunteerism, student groups set up recruiting tables—inspiring the first Student Activities Day, the following fall.
• September 30, 1988: Hundreds of students protested a Boston licensing board’s decision to prohibit kegs and cases of beer in college dormitories. Students invited a television reporter covering the rally to an illegal keg party, which aired on the Channel 7 news. One student organizer claimed the ordinance ignored the “14th Amendment, which states every citizen shall be given equal protection underneath the law.” The law stood.
• November 15, 1989: Some 40 Boston College students joined 25 homeless people in “Sleep-out on the Dustbowl,” as part of national Hunger and Homeless Week.
• April 20, 1993: In a report on the annual Springfest, the Heights wrote: “Karaoke, free food, a band, and, of course, an air-filled rubber tent all help to evoke an inexplicable, but overwhelming desire in BC students to cut classes.”
• April 19, 2007: The first Jesuit Olympics were held, with teams made up of five students and one Jesuit apiece competing in pie eating, trivia, and relays. Among the teams to date: “You Better Belize It” and “the Diocese of Fargo Pizza.”
• October 4, 2009: The first Boston College Quidditch tournament took place with 16 teams, including Hermione’s Broomstick (the winner).
• October 15, 2009: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse, members of the fine arts department erected a 40-foot-long, 12-foot-high scale replica of a section. For almost a month, passing students added their graffiti to the edifice, as intended.
• October 3, 2010: Late into the night, with construction fencing due to go up in less than 12 hours, a group of students on blankets kept vigil on the Dustbowl. A passing freshman contributed a fresh kernel of nostalgia. “I remember going to all the freshman barbecues,” she said. “We had all our games out here.”

Seth Meehan is a doctoral student in the history department.

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