First outdoor convocation outside Goodspeed and Gates-Blake Hall in 1894. This location is now the Classics Quad. Then photo by Gibson Photography courtesy Special Collections Research Center. Now photo by Robert Kozloff.
Today a quiet corner in the Classics Quadrangle with Goodspeed and Gates-Blake Hall to the west and the Classics Building and Weiboldt Hall to the south, this spot was the site of the University’s first outdoor convocation, held in 1894 with Nobel Prize winner Albert A. Michelson delivering the address.
Current students know the Main Quadrangle to be fully enclosed, but the southern edge was not completed until decades after the founding of the University. The Classics Building was completed in 1915 and Wieboldt Hall in 1928. Today, the Spring Convocation is also held outdoors, but in the larger open space on the center-east side of the Main Quadrangle.
