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Posts tagged ‘tourguide’

Apr 7

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The 2013 Challenge

Hey Class of 2013 (and 2013.5),

We here at MiddBlog have been fighting the glossy admissions brochure for years (except for maybe this, which is awesome). There’s nothing worse than deciding on where to go to school by looking at expensive, racially diverse photography in colorful admissions materials. As I write this, massive campus tours are walking by my window, each parent with a Middlebury viewbook (that dark yellow-covered one) in hand.

You’ll learn more by visiting the campus on special “Preview Days” coming this April 13th and April 19th. Well, maybe… The Admissions Office are fantastic folks (shout out to Jenny Schneider ’07), but truth be told, we want you to come to Middlebury. We will put on our song-and-dance show (maybe even serve something extra nice in the dining halls) for you while you’re here. It’s not that we’re lying to you; we just want to put our best foot forward.

Still, though, 2013 deserves the rough-and-tumble, authentic Middlebury experience. And so MiddBlog announces…

The 2013 Challenge

If you’re coming to the Middlebury campus in the next month, submit a 140-character answer to the following question: Why do you think you got into Middlebury?

Email your answer to tips [at] midd-blog [dot] com or message @middblog on twitter with your answer.  Deadline: April 12, 2009.  Noon EDT.

The most interesting and provacative answers will win a personal “authentic campus tour” complete with “everything you wanted to know but your tourguide would never tell you.” Not only is this tour personal (just you and your fam, if they’re around), but you will be ensured no B.S. No talk about 1 million+ volumes in the library, that’s for sure. Instead, we’ll talk about the hook up culture, why the CFA was built upside-down and backwards, how many dishes student steal every semester, which social house got banned last year, and exactly how much money the school spends on Quidditch.

Middlebury: unglossy, unpretty, undressed.

Nov 1

Tourguiding Tales: Midd’s Charter

November 1, 1800 – Middlebury College received its charter. Middlebury was the 29th college in the nation to be chartered and the 20th to open. The first President of the College was Yale tutor Jeremiah Atwater and the first class consisted of seven advanced grammar school students. The classes began one week after the charter was approved and classes were held in the Academy building, which once stood behind what is now Twilight Hall. Atwater was quickly replaced by Professor Frederick Hall, who brought Middlebury to life with his captivating lectures, filling the library with books and the labs with equipment from his years of studying science in Europe.

All of this information came from the book, The College on the Hill: A Browser’s History for the Bicentennial by David Haward Bain and “A Walking History of Middlebury,” website by Glenn M. Andres. The Tourguiding Tales is unofficially and possibly unwillingly provided by the Admissions Office. Check out the Middlebury Myths Debunked!

Sep 30

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Tourguiding Tales: Painter

When the College decided to expand in 1810, there was a dispute over where the new campus should be built. Gamaliel Painter solved this dispute while helping the College, by pitting each side of the town against each other in a fund raising campaign. Whichever side raised the most building supplies could have the College; in the end, the west side one but Painter convinced most of the east side benefactors to maintain their pledges and the campus was built where Painter Hall still stands today.

Painter Hall was built in 1814 – 1816 using local Weybridge stone. Included in the donated stone was a reject grave marker that was placed facing out. You can see it next to the entrance closest to Warner. Painter is the oldest extant college building in Vermont, and throughout the years included a library and reading room, two-story gymnasium, a classroom, and student rooms.

The Tourguiding Tales is unofficially and possibly unwillingly provided by the Admissions Office. Check out the Middlebury Myths Debunked!

Sep 29

Tourguiding Tales: Joseph Battell

Joseph Battell, the namesake of Battell Hall, large land donor and original owner of the Bread Loaf Inn missed 6 days of instruction, 20 chapel devotions, and earned 36 demerits, the most in his class, during the Spring of 1858. He also dropped out after junior year.

The Tourguiding Tales is unofficially and possibly unwillingly provided by the Admissions Office. Check out the Middlebury Myths Debunked!

Sep 28

Tourguiding Tales: Alonzo Hepburn

Alonzo Barton Hepburn, the namesake of Hepburn Hall, entered Middlebury in 1867 but left after one year because he was unable to afford the cost of the College. He proceeded to become a lawyer and legislator, and became the vice-president of Chase National Bank, giving much of his fortune to Middlebury College. When Hepburn had his building built, it was made of yellow brick, because the traditional Vermont marble reminded him of gravestones.

The Tourguiding Tales is unofficially and possibly unwillingly provided by the Admissions Office. Check out the Middlebury Myths Debunked!

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