News-Register reporter Starla Pointer ’82 toured Northup Hall to check out the early stages of Linfield’s library restoration, and shared her impressions.
Remembering the Past, Envisioning the Present
We donned hard hats and wound our way over plywood bridges to reach the building, which has been closed since the college turned a former Hewlett-Packard building into a new library in 2003.
Climbing the brick steps was a deja vu experience for me, as I’d done it a thousand times before as a student. Not only did I use the library frequently during my four years at Linfield, I also worked there for three of those years to help pay for my education.
As a senior shelving books, I remember thinking, “When I’m not so busy with school, I’ll have plenty of time to read this and this and this.” Little did I realize that my school years would be the most carefree of my life.
Walking through the rooms this week, I saw the piles of rubble from walls that had been razed.
But I envisioned stacks where books were ordered by the Library of Congress system. I remembered the creak of the dumbwaiter, which we loaded with books, then raised to the top floor via a rope and pulleys.
In my memory, I saw the reading room, where I once hung newspapers on poles, and read my first News-Register. I saw the dark, musty room in the basement, where I studied with my friend Brad Cotton ’82.
I saw the front entrance, where we sisters of Kappa Alpha Phi posed for a photo in the spring of 1979. I saw the sunroom in the back left corner, where I read some of my first college texts the autumn before that.
Nice memories all. It’s good to know my alma mater is bringing Northup back for all of us to use again.
Starla Pointer
Education Reporter
News-Register
