San Francisco - Let's Begin at Stanford

Steve and I both found ourselves out on the west coast - work, visiting friends and also finding time for just the two of us - which happens less often than you might imagine. We revisited places we hadn't been to in years and discovered new things along the way. During a visit to a friend in Hillsborough, Karen stopped at one of the countries most well known and beautiful universities. 

                        

Stanford is one of those special Universities. You enter via what seems like an endlessly long, beautiful, old palm lined  roadway with broad meridian, designed, like the campus itself, by Frederick Law Olmsted. Established in 1885 by railroad magnate and once California Governor and US Senator, Leland Stanford and wife Jane, in honor of their son who died of thyroid at the age 15 in 1884. The Leland Stanford Junior University's motto is "The wind of freedom blows". Although a liberal arts school, it has specialties that rival Harvard and MIT. It admitted its first student in 1891. Today, in early June it is brimming with graduations; the campus alive with students, family and friends. 

        

                   

It is difficult to imagine that anyone affiliated with the Stanford has not been to its renowned nondenominational chapel, the Stanford Memorial Church. Often called the University's architectural crown, it seamlessly merges Romanesque and Mission Revival styles.  The simple stucco exterior belies what can be found inside its doors. Once you've been inside to admire its ceramic murals, its stained glass, five organs, sculpture and carefully constructed cedar ceiling, you will understand why for years after, alumni are drawn back to this unique space. 

                

Outside Rodin's sculptures add another reason to explore this campus. The Cantor Arts Center boasts  a total of 200 works, among the largest Rodin collection in the world and all available for public viewing with twenty bronzes outside in the sculpture garden. The Gates of Hell (1880-1890) is a cacophony of infant through wizened figures that took Rodin two decades to complete. The Burghers of Calais are inspired as a memorial to the 100 years War and the dramatic role of Calais France in 1347. Rodin chose to not idealize the figures as his way of celebrating the idea that heroic deeds are performed by ordinary people. Although the artist's work was not fully appreciated at is completion in the 1890's it has come to be as iconographic as Rodin's The Thinkker and The Kiss, also part of the collection.

There are many reasons to visit this beautiful campus, even if you were not fortunate enough to attend here as a student. If you are in the San Francisco area, put a visit to Stanford on your list.