The Collegian

Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: William Clayton

Media Credit: William Clayton

It's a step taken with dread on the way to pay a tuition bill, with anxiety to meet the dean, with excitement to fill a new schedule at the registrar's office. It's a step exited upon with joyful tears when sorority bids are given, with a heavy pocket on payday, with relief when the dean says you're not in trouble. It's a step frequently used and largely ignored.

The oldest step on campus boasts an age of 134 years. It has been used and changed during those years by every student who ever attended Hillsdale College after 1875.

The step guarding the first set of wooden doors into Central Hall, College Historian Arlan Gilbert said, is the original. Construction of Central Hall began when a massive fire in 1874 destroyed the campus' original building. Central Hall now stands in the same location as the first building and was completed between 1875 and 1876.

In 1997, Central Hall underwent extensive maintenance, which included repainting and re-mortaring the structure, as well as replacing the front steps. Gilbert said there was discussion during this refurbishing period to replace the step which is worn more on the right than on the left.

Tony Fowler, vice president of the administration and secretary for the board of trustees at the time of the renovation, said keeping the step was an important decision.

"We felt it was a part of the original building, and the history behind all of that wear was something we shouldn't replace," Fowler said. "All the students who had crossed through there... we didn't want to disturb that."

"The step is obviously worn down," Gilbert said. "All of us had a yearning to keep that old. We just couldn't take that away."

Anthony Swinehart, professor of biology, said the step is gray sandstone. As he rubbed the step with his fingers, gritty dust rubbed off.

Since 1875, about 14,000 people have graduated from Hillsdale College with a bachelor's degree, but far more have crossed Central Hall's step. These alumni, who include successful doctors and businessmen, judges and congressmen, entrepreneurs and scientists, all can take credit for the gap underneath the first set of doors. As these students grew and left Hillsdale, the step - like the Giving Tree in Shel Silverstein's book of the same name - provided them with means to their destination.

And though this step has not changed in function, as the Giving Tree did, it has been worn with tread and faithfully provides assistance for students toward their destination. Lucky for this step, it won't ever be lonely, like the Giving Tree. It will continue being used and worn - and it will be happy.

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