I have lived on West Campus for over a year, my oldest sister lived on West Campus one year during her time at Cornell, and both of my parents went to Cornell, but there is still SO much about Cornell and West Campus that I never knew before.

Last Wednesday, I went to the Rose Cafe event “History and Secrets of West Campus” with House Professor Garrick Blalock and learned about West Campus areas not usually known about or available to the public. This included a behind-the-scenes of West Campus’ underground, where food is transported to West Campus without being seen, and the War Memorial Room, which (as far as I’m aware of) recently has only been available to the public on September 11 in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks.

The event started in Professor Blalock’s room within Rose House, a 3-story apartment that he shares with his family and the Rose House dog, Pepper. While there, he talked about the history behind the West Campus housing system’s development from Ezra Cornell’s desire to not have dorms on campus, to the development of “university halls” (or “u-halls”), to the creation of Houses 1 through 5 (the names the houses were referred to as before being named after faculty members rather than donors). I had never heard most of this history before due to my parents never living in the West Campus Houses, as they were built after they had left, and my oldest sister never having an event like this occur while she was on West.

After a brief look at Professor Blalock’s room, he led the event to the first location: the underground of West Campus. Starting from a doorway nearby Becker’s dining hall, Professor Blalock led me and the other students at the event through the pathways underneath West Campus. We passed by dining halls, food fridges, offices, the doorway that both brings in food and brings out trash, and many more “secret” doors before reaching the elevator to bring us back to Rose Main. It was interesting seeing how planned out West Campus was in certain aspects, such as making sure that no one would get hurt from large food or trash trucks constantly coming onto West. Also, a fun fact that was shared with the group: Professor Blalock’s apartment is right on top of where the elevator to the basement is, so he can always hear when people are down there. It is possible to visit this area without Professor Blalock being there, but there’s no way to call the elevator from the basement (a security measure put in so visiting workers don’t go into the dorms), so visitors need to either exit via the trash/food doors or through the emergency stairwell.

The second, and last, location shown as part of the event was the War Memorial Room. Although there is not much physically in the room (a few different countries’ flags, benches, etc.), it represent much more than this as it was originally a monument to the 264 Cornellians who died in World War I. We sadly did not get to spend as much time in the War Memorial Room as I would have liked (as we spent a lot of time in the underground of West Campus), but it was still interesting to see an importance place that honored Cornellians of the past. There was also a wall dividing the group from I believe is an elevator or stairs leading up to the meeting place of the “secret” society, Quill and Dagger. If you are a senior and have not yet been “tapped” to be in Quill and Dagger, you can see the secret room if you find someone within the society to take you up there. Maybe I’ll see if I can visit there just before I graduate if I don’t get “tapped”?

Overall, the event was very interesting, as I learned “new” history about Cornell that I could share with my family.