Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
is (having turned in the real one already) and embark on the Thesis
Parade, in which a ragtag marching band leads the seniors into Eliot
Hall and up to the registrar's office, where one by one they each plunk
down their thesis, symbolically and with much fanfare handing it in.
(The second extra copy is then ceremoniously burned in a bonfire right
in front of the library.) Then everyone gets drunk and high in the rain.
From the Great Lawn, in front of Eliot Hall and Old Dorm Block,
wander downhill (west)between Anna Mann (the pretty gray dorm to
your right) and McNaughton (a newer, less pretty dorm) toward the
campus's West Parking Lot. (This slope is usually the location of the na-
ked waterslide during Reed's annual Renn Fayre, FYI.) Carefully cross
the street (SE 28th Ave.) to the entrance of Crystal Springs Rhododen-
dron Garden.
If time allows, Crystal Springs makes for a very pleasant detour. Once
upon a time, the land now occupied by the garden was Crystal Springs
Farm, owned by William Ladd, of Ladd's Addition and Laurelhurst
Park fame (see
Back Story: William S. Ladd
). Before it became a botan-
ical garden, it was used as an outdoor theater (Reedies apparently used
to call it “Shakespeare Island”). The land found its true calling in the
1950s, as a botanical test garden. Over the years it has gradually been
developed, shaped, and landscaped (partly using rocks from Mt. Hood)
and now contains some 2,500 azaleas, rhododendrons, and other plants.
Mostly it's just a really pretty place to wander around, look at some
fountains, see masses of surrealistically colorful flowers in bloom, and
so forth.
Leaving the garden, take a right on SE 28th Ave. and then a left onto SE
Woodstock Blvd. Follow Woodstock up the hill, alongside a residential
area of upscale homes and quiet, tree-lined side streets. Cross SE 39th
Ave. at the stoplight at the hill's summit, and continue along Woodstock
Blvd. (On your right as you cross 39th Ave., you'll see a dilapidated
yellowy-beige house on the corner—this is a long-established Reed
party house called the Dustbin, where many good times have been for-
gotten.)
At SE 43rd Ave., look left to peek at the Woodstock Community Center.
It's housed in a restored firehouse from 1928 and holds classes for kids
and adults alike, in everything from tae kwon do to fingerpainting.
