On Art, Technology and Economics
For Ohio State students the Oval is a blessing and a curse. It’s a wonderful parklike setting with plenty of green space. It’s also a huge amount of space that needs to be crossed to make it to class on time. This summer scene looks down the Oval from the High Street side with the main library in the fall distance.
From the Wikipedia entry: “Mirror Lake is a small lake (pond) on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Historically, the lake was spring-fed, and sat on the property of William Neil in North Columbus (then a city of its own, which would later be annexed by Columbus). The trustees in charge of purchasing land for the new Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (which would later become the Ohio State University) chose to purchase Mr. Neil’s land after drinking from the spring. A German trustee reportedly stated “It’s hard to get a Dutchman away from a spring like that.” The spring dried up in 1891 when the city of Columbus struck the source of the spring while installing a trunk sewer line through campus. The water source was subsequently provided by the city of Columbus municipal water supply, at a new location on campus near the location of the original lake.”