You know what we haven't had in, well, basically forever? A building trivia question. This is almost going to be so easy I shouldn't ask it, but my stock of photos is low. I've been in Philadelphia much of the fall and haven't had a chance to take many photos. So, digging into my files here's a picture of a building that was built in the early/middle of the twentieth century as a law school building. (It's no longer used for legal education, but you can still see the law school classrooms with tiered seating inside. Beautiful inside, as well as out.) Here's what interests me about the building -- look at the names on the outside -- "Marshall, Story, Taney." Given all the talk about names on buildings, perhaps there's an opportunity to talk about these names, particularly Taney's. And at least add some contextualization to that building. And it occurs to me that there are probably a lot of law school buildings around the country that have similar inscriptions on them. I recall that the University of Pennsylvania's law school has the names of many legal luminaries on it. I'll have to dig up some photos of that building.
Jones Hall at Tulane?
Posted by: Anymouse | December 11, 2017 at 10:04 PM
That is a good guess, Anymouse, You’re right that it’s a southern school, but think somewhat further north,
Posted by: Al Brophy | December 11, 2017 at 10:38 PM
I'm guessing Wake Forest University, but I have no idea of which building.
Posted by: Ralph Clifford | December 12, 2017 at 04:45 PM
Ralph, another good guess. Looks like it, doesn't it?I need to check my photos of the Wake Forest law building from when the school was in Wake Forest. Alas, this isn't Wake. This is proving tougher than I'd thought.
Posted by: Al Brophy | December 12, 2017 at 05:30 PM
It reminds me of Stateville with a bicycle rack.
Posted by: Deep State Special Legal Counsel | December 12, 2017 at 08:01 PM
The brick is darker than Wake ibut the old Carswell Hall at Wake in Winston was my initial impression, but did not hold up after some consideration. The Taney reference has had me looking at old university of Maryland buildings but no luck so far.
Posted by: Steve Garland | December 12, 2017 at 09:03 PM
Taney may be on some law school buildings in Maryland, but this building is south of Maryland.
Posted by: Al Brophy | December 12, 2017 at 10:58 PM
Okay. No luck in search. Will continue. But in the meantime, here's an article confirming your suspicion that Penn might have enshrined Taney as well:
https://www.law.upenn.edu/about/history/chiseling-legal-tradition.php
Posted by: Steve Garland | December 13, 2017 at 09:38 AM
Yes, there you go. I will try to get a picture of that next time I’m in west philly. Makes me wonder how many other schools have Taney on their building.
Posted by: Al Brophy | December 13, 2017 at 10:36 AM
I’m late to the party but that’s Farrah Hall at the University of Alabama.
Posted by: Jason Mazzone | December 13, 2017 at 09:53 PM
Of course Jason is right, as always. I thought some people might have guessed that this was the old UNC. Law building, which also looks like Farrah Hall.
Now a little story about Farrah Hall, which I’ve used before. Farrah Hall is next to Foster Auditorium, where Governor Wallace made. His stand in the schoolhouse door. When I arrived in Tuscaloosa the first time my beloved colleague and mentor Tom Jones came up to me and said, you study history, here’s some history for you. I saw Governor Wallace’s stand. The students and faculty were all looking out the back window.
Close readers of the faculty lounge may recall that Tom passed away earlier this year. We miss him a lot around here.
Posted by: Al Brophy | December 14, 2017 at 11:40 AM