Campus 1942 - 43

[Turbine]

Martin Hall

[NewsCopy]

A program of paving started early in 1942 at Southwestern Louisiana Institute had nearly reached completion and a new drainage system was being installed on the campus in midsummer 1942.

"Dormitory drive, which runs in front of Junior Hall, Sophomore Hall and Buchanan Hall, as well as the girls gymnasium and the Infirmary and connects to McKinley Street and the boulevard running through the campus, is to be completed ... and will probably be opened for traffic on July 25," R.J. Cambre, superintendent of building told The Advertiser.

"This completes the paving program at Southwestern where 13,000 feet were laid in two 20-foot lanes on the boulevard bisecting the campus, where approximately 2 1/2 miles of sidewalks were laid, and which included the dormitory drive, which is 725 feet long and 30 feet wide."

The source of the story

Jim Bradshaw
C'est Vrai (It's True)

[LaCajunsFan]

1943: The first year that 'Cypress Lake' (it was still referred to as 'Cypress Grove' in the 1942 yearbook) appears in the L'Acadien.

The reason for the flooding is still debated: some believe that it was for the health of the trees, and others think it was done as a fire-prevention measure, should the school be bombed during WWII.
Either way, it's now hard to imagine the campus any other way.