My two biggest disappointments in my visit to photograph the St. Joseph’s College campus in September 2013 were that the front facade of the storied Romanesque Revival-style chapel on the grounds was under repair and covered with scaffolding, and that the nearby reflecting pond was not operating because of what also appeared to be a construction- or repair-related matter.
The 180-acre St. Joseph’s campus was largely contained inside the rectangle formed by College and Sparling avenues, Schuster Road and Charles Street. The campus also had laid claim to Lake Banet, a former stone quarry to the southwest. For a brief period beginning in 2013, the school sold summer passes to people to use the lake, $25 for an individual, $50 for a family, and $100 for both swimming and fishing.
On Game Day in 2013, I parked in the extreme west spaces (read: remote area) of the Walmart store on the east side of U.S. 231 (College Avenue), then crossed the street to access the campus. Because of where I parked and where I first entered campus, the first structure I saw was the Richard F. Schaff Alumni Fieldhouse, where the Pumas basketball and volleyball teams played their home games.
When it opened in 1941, the arena was name Alumni Fieldhouse; it was renamed in 1994 in honor of the school’s storied multisport athlete, coach and director of athletics. Behind the arena is the Hudson Recreation Center, and immediately behind that is the Gil Hodges Memorial Baseball Field and Rueth-Fitzgibbon Baseball Facility. Baseball is a spring sport, but there were members of the baseball team practicing on the field on this football game day.
The two would have presented some great photo opportunities, I feel. There was a third disappointment, actually, and I take the blame for that one. I rarely lugged my tripod around with me on these walk-around shoots on campuses, relying confidently on the vibration compensation technology of my Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD lens to keep my hands steady for my three-frame, high-dynamic range (HDR) shots taken for each composition.
Before you jump to conclusions, the lens did its usual fine job again for me for my HDR outdoor shots in Rensselaer, the seat of Jasper County in northwest Indiana, at the institution founded by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood as a secondary school to educate Native Americans. It was when I went inside the chapel and tried to steady my hands any possible way I could that I wished I would have grabbed the tripod from the car trunk and brought it along.
Before you jump to conclusions, the lens did its usual fine job again for me for my HDR outdoor shots in Rensselaer, the seat of Jasper County in northwest Indiana, at the institution founded by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood as a secondary school to educate Native Americans. It was when I went inside the chapel and tried to steady my hands any possible way I could that I wished I would have grabbed the tripod from the car trunk and brought it along.
I required a much slower shutter speed indoors, as any shutterbug knows. I resorted to a few hand-steadying techniques to address the lack of tripod, and those succeeded on a few shots. But even the Tamron vibration compensation technology couldn't bail me out for the majority because I needed a very slow shutter speed for indoor available light.
One of the indoor successes leads off this post. For this shot, I was seated on the aisle carpet with my knees bent upward and camera resting on the knees. I'm sure the knee rest played a role in keeping the three images sharp while using the comparatively slow shutter speed. But that technique had only limited value, given my desire to move around and get other shots in the chapel.
The 180-acre St. Joseph’s campus was largely contained inside the rectangle formed by College and Sparling avenues, Schuster Road and Charles Street. The campus also had laid claim to Lake Banet, a former stone quarry to the southwest. For a brief period beginning in 2013, the school sold summer passes to people to use the lake, $25 for an individual, $50 for a family, and $100 for both swimming and fishing.
On Game Day in 2013, I parked in the extreme west spaces (read: remote area) of the Walmart store on the east side of U.S. 231 (College Avenue), then crossed the street to access the campus. Because of where I parked and where I first entered campus, the first structure I saw was the Richard F. Schaff Alumni Fieldhouse, where the Pumas basketball and volleyball teams played their home games.
When it opened in 1941, the arena was name Alumni Fieldhouse; it was renamed in 1994 in honor of the school’s storied multisport athlete, coach and director of athletics. Behind the arena is the Hudson Recreation Center, and immediately behind that is the Gil Hodges Memorial Baseball Field and Rueth-Fitzgibbon Baseball Facility. Baseball is a spring sport, but there were members of the baseball team practicing on the field on this football game day.
For 30 years -- 1944 to 1974 -- the Chicago Bears of the National Football League held their annual summer training camp on the campus. The campus also was the location for filming of the 1971 major motion picture Brian's Song, which told the story of Bears' running back Brian Piccolo and his relationship with fellow running back Gayle Sayers.
Above and next several below: These are interior shots of the chapel. The frame above is the only usable one from those I took standing up and unaided with any hand-holding support. For the others, I was either sitting on the floor (or sacristy step) and resting the camera on my knees, or, in the case of the detail shot of the fresco, lying flat on my back and resting the camera on my chest.
Above: In the distance is the reflecting pond, which on this day was not reflecting anything because it wasn’t operational. A closer photo of the pond is immediately below.
Above is the front facade of the chapel, being worked on by restoration crews. Notice the people emerging from the door on the left. This was a campus visit tour guide for a prospective student and his/her parents, something I saw often on these campuses during my visits. Renovation of the building, which was dedicated in 1910, was being conducted in five phases.
Above and below: Views of the Evans Arts and Sciences Building from just outside the chapel door. You'll get two other views of this building further down.
Above and below: Views of the chapel's backside (left) and a slight portion of the adjacent Xavier-McHale Hall.
Above: The walk from the front of the chapel to Xavier-McHall Hall (below) takes you through this interesting spectacle.
Above and below: The Schwietermann Hall Welcome and Admissions Center, which was dedicated in 1963, has an interesting three-sided bowed shape. These are two of those sides.
Above: The very simple-looking exterior of the campus radio station WPUM-FM (93.3).
Above: A closer view of the four-level Evans Arts and Sciences building, where the lion's share of academic classes are held.
Above is Merlini Hall, which accommodated 65 students and was dedicated in 1940. It was named for the Venerable John Merlini, the third Moderator-General of the Missionaries of the
Precious Blood.
Above: Dwenger Hall was constructed of concrete blocks and opened in 1907. It was named for John Joseph Dwenger, the second bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne. It served as an infirmary and health center for most its years in operation. For a few years after the building was retired as an infirmary, Dwenger was used for faculty offices, then briefly for student residency and finally as offices for student activities such as the school student newspaper. It was emptied in the 1990s and officially retired from service in June 1998, after which the windows were replaced with plexiglass. After its closure, the building was considered by some school officials as a white elephant, and it was rumored to be haunted. But its rich history apparently served to prevent the school from removing it.
Above and below: The campus plaza, leading to the Halleck Student Center in the background.
Above and below: The indoor athletics facility, Richard F. Scharf Alumni Fieldhouse. It initially was named Alumni Fieldhouse in 1941, much like how the football stadium is called Alumni Stadium. In 1994, it was renamed in honor of the school's storied multisport athlete, coach and athletic director. Below is a wall hanging in the fieldhouse.
Above and next several below: I was surprised and impressed to see the St. Joseph’s College baseball team working out at the baseball complex, whose field is named after native Hoosier and Major League Baseball great Gil Hodges, who spent most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. Hodges was the only St. Joseph’s College alumnus to make it to the Major League level of play in baseball. In 2017, the school’s final year before operations were suspended, the Pumas baseball team continued playing out its season after the school closed its doors. The team, which had a 34-20 record, was awarded a berth in the NCAA Division II postseason double-elimination tournament and won its first game, 5-4, versus the University of Southern Indiana, boosting its season record to 35-20. But the Pumas lost in the second round to Quincy (Ill.) University, 9-8, and dropped into the elimination bracket as a result. They lost their only game there, 4-1, to Kentucky Wesleyan, ending the final campaign with a 35-22 record.
Above: This image -- intentionally shot this way -- turned out horrible in high-dynamic range software. This is an edited version (boosting midtones and shadows) of a single frame.
Above: Looking toward the baseball complex from the elevated plaza outside the Halleck Student Center.
Above and first two below: Different view of the Halleck Student Center exterior, my favorite being the one immediately below.
Above and first five photos below: Wall art in the interior of Halleck Student Center. The halls of the main floor were decorated with bright, colorful school-related mural art, such as the one above. Jazzman's Cafe & Bakery also was in the student center.
Above and below: From the student center plaza, one can look out and see these views of the mall, along which most of the school's residence halls and apartments are located.
Above: Students walking along the sidewalk within the residential mall.
Above: The front of Justin Hall at the far south end of the residential mall.
Above and below: Two views and treatments of images of the Rev. Charles Banet Core Education Center. The horizontal orientation above is a high-dynamic range rendering; the vertical below is a single-frame.
Above: Yet another look at Evans Arts and Sciences Hall, this time from a different perspective.
Above and two photos below: A modest plaza behind the arts and sciences building.
St. Joseph’s College, which was founded in 1889, never enjoyed a huge endowment ($15.7 million was its peak), according to a 2017 article in Indianapolis Monthly. And that might have had a role in its ultimate demise as a traditional four-year higher-education institution.
Enrollment numbers declined gradually through the years. By the second decade of the new millennium, continuing enrollment declines, combined with growing debt and a need to make costly repairs of existing facilities, forced school administrators to renegotiate its $27 million debt. There were fundraising campaigns over the next couple years, but those efforts failed to make a serious dent into reducing the debt.
In February 2017, the school announced it would officially suspend operations at the conclusion of that academic year. Its last announced enrollment was 1,100 students.
The school launched a huge closeout sale in the months after closing, including the selling of college Hall of Fame plaques that once hung in Hanson Recreation Center for $20 each, angering many alumni and local residents.
St. Joseph's tried to operate as a junior college through a partnership with Marian University in Indianapolis, beginning in 2019, but that didn't last long. In 2021, the school began to offer a modest number of classes (in technology, general studies, health and veterinary sciences and executive education) in partnership with other institutions of higher learning. St. Joseph’s still maintains a website, but the amount of information available there is limited.
To view a full gallery of images from the campus landscape portion of my visit to St. Joseph’s College in 2013, follow the link in this sentence.
Above: A view of campus with the chapel on the left.
Above: The side of the chapel.
Above and below: Two scenic vistas on campus.
Next up: Chapter 23, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology vs. Defiance College, Sept. 2013
Previously in Game Day Revisited:
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