Over Time, the Meanings of Landscapes can Change...
When I took my first tour of Wash U, the tour guide told my group that the fence around McMillan Hall was put up to keep boys from digging their way into the girl’s dormitory. While I have never been able to confirm this statement, the fact remains that McMillan was originally built as a living space for female students and used for that purpose until the construction of other dedicated areas for housing. This fence separated it from the rest of the campus, designating it as a place that not everyone could enter. Today, McMillan serves as an academic building for the anthropology department, as well as housing Overseas Programs, so the fence serves a rather different role. By separating McMillan from the rest of Wash U, it creates an isolated place for both students and professors to chat and study, demonstrating the fence’s radical change in meaning over time. No longer does the fence serve to keep out people who were not meant to enter, it instead creates a sanctuary for those who enter the area. When a building’s purpose goes through such a dramatic change as from a dormitory to an academic building, certain features are bound to either become entirely useless or go through a drastic change in meaning. Today, when I walk past McMillan on my way to classes, I tend to see the fence not as a way of keeping people out, but as creating a wonderful outdoor space, quite at odds with its original purpose.