Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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THROUGH THE ARCADES IN THE CHANCEL

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Stanford Quad 1908 leaped from their beds at the first shock were thrown to the floor. Large fragments of plas- ter fell from the ceilings and walls, blinding and half stifling the occupants of the rooms. The ever-repeated crash of falling masonry added to the uproar. The great ornamental chimney, hurled to the roof by the shock, dashed itself through four stories to the base- ment, carrying with it three rooms with their five occupants. One of these men, Junius Robert Hanna, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, was instantly killed by the tons of stone under which he was buried ; the other four escaped without serious injury. Practically everyone in Encina rushed half clad from the building. Vet with all the fright which naturally took possession of everybody, there was no real panic, and the men, with some few exceptions, displayed remarkable coolness and judgment. Roble Hall, the building which was con- structed of concrete, reinforced by steel wires, would have been jjractically undamaged, save in broken window panes and plastering, had it not been for a chimney similiar to that at Encina, which fell in luuch the same way, carrying down the three rooms that lay in its ])atli. h ' ortunately the occupants escaped with- out any severe injury, although one girl who went to bed on the third floor awoke in the ])arlor. At the power house, the great historic chinmey which towered high above the sur- rounding roofs, fell, burying and killing the fireman, Otto Gerdes, who had remained at his post to turn off the electric power. The 22

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igoS Stanford fall of this chimney demolished the boiler room and the adjoining Quad building. On the Row, the frame houses shook like reeds with the force of the shock. But most of them escaped without any substantial damage. The Chi Psi lodge, however, was thrown from its foundations, and so bent and twisted within and without that the only wonder is that it was not torn to pieces. The duration of the earthquake, as officially recorded, was forty- seven seconds. There were in reality two separate shocks, one imme- diately following the other,, and displaying even greater violence than its predecessor. By the time of the ces.sation of the second shock, practi- cally the entire population of the campus was out of doors witnessing the havoc that had been wrought. Everywhere there was a disheartening spectacle of ruin such as none of those who saw it ever wish to see again. The spire of Memorial Church had fallen, and the tower of the edifice was a wreck, crowned by the square wooden portion of the belfry, which had not gone down with the tiling. The front wall of the nave had also fallen, leaving the organ exposed, and sending a bright flood of daylight into those precincts formerly unlit save by the storied windows, richly dight, on which were portrayed in the softest colors the deeds of Biblical heroes, from Abraham to the Maccabees. Behind the church, several hundred feet of arcades, which were not held up, as were the others, by being joined to the buildings, were completely leveled. Memorial Arch had lost its heavy stone cap, and the frieze, The Progress of Civilization, which was designed by Augustus St. Gaudens, was utterly destroyed. Down the sides of the Arch extended gaping seams, even to the bases. The falling fragments of the Arch had broken down the adjoining arcades, and crushed in a portion of the roof of Assembly Hall. In front of the Zoology Building, the statue of Louis Agassiz, which stood on a stone shelf above the three central arches of the arcade, had fallen head first, and was imbedded fully two feet in the concrete jiavement below. Strange to say, the statue was not broken, and is now restored to its old station. The Chemistry Building had lost all its numerous chimneys and a I 24