Here's a view of Bluffton that you've never seen.
Dick Boehr shared with the Icon several Bluffton College photographs from the early 1920 in his collection. This is among that group of photos.
You can't take this photo today because all the trees in the university woods block the view.
This is a view or Ropp Hall. There are several things to point out:
• Examine the bank of the Riley. No trees, no shrubs. It is truly a "bluff" above the stream
• No Adams Bridge to cross the creek at Ropp Hall
• Bren-Dell Hall does not exist - it was built about 40 years later
• In place of the parking lot at Ropp is a house
• The Enneking house at the corner of Campus View and Campus Drive looks very similiar today as it did in this photo
• The English Lutheran Church steeple is evident in the background
• The campus lagoon appears to have extended itself further toward Ropp than it does today
• Has the creek entended into what was once the clay tennis courts below Bren-Dell? If so, was that land filled in later?
Did the photographer climb a tree to take this photo?
Other viewer observations are welcome.
