Coming Soon!
See all of the hidden treasures around campus and learn
their histories
Delos
Fall Plaque
The
College Bell
Rock
Pile
Class of 1870
Stone Pile>
Close-up of image from Gage Printing postcard. (c. 1904)
Editor's
note:
Class of 1870 Stone Pile is visible on the lawn near
Robinson Hall.
Robinson
Hall, Albion College, Albion, Michigan.
Real Photo postcard, unknown publisher
•The
Stone Pile was erected between Robinson and South Halls in
1870
•In
1950, the family of Isaac Riddick presented the College
with a plaque which was placed on the Stone Pile to
identify it for later generations
•In
1994 the Stone Pile was photographed and numbered prior to
being moved due to construction of the Kellogg Cente.
•In
1995 the Stone Pile was repositioned in front of the
Gerstacker International House
In
May 1870, the 14 members of the Albion College graduating
class searched the countryside for boulders that would
represent each of them in a momument. The boulders were
then brought back to campus by horse and wagon and
assembled on the Quadrangle to create what became known as
the "Stone Pile."
A member of the class and later alumni editor for the first
edition of "The Pleiad", Isaac Riddick, delivered an
oration entitled, "Footprints," at the dedication of the
class memorial in the spring. In it, he spoke of the
footprints the class left behind them during their student
lives, and the footprints that were yet to be made in their
lives after graduation. He concluded with these lines: "And
now [my] fellow classmates[,] we have met this hour in
harmony to make footprints more, which shall be a memorial
telling to those who cameafter us that thro' these halls
and o'er these grounds [as] brothers and sister we have
trod. And toward our memorial I trust in the future, many
eyes will look with kindness and glad voice be heard
saying, "There are the stepping stones of '70 around which
year [after] year we shall meet. . . And now as you go out
to labot as philosophers, essayists, politicians, orators,
poets, historians, naturalists, seekers and teachers of
truth. . . may all your deeds, all your words, all your
smiles[,] all your footprints shine with glory as the
stars."
-Jennifer
Thomas, Marilyn Crandell Schleg Archivist at Albion
College
Class
of 1896 Fountain
The Rock
