These were the Domiciliary Buildings…. they we used from the 1880s until after the Vietnam War. One of the guys I play chess with lived in one of them a few times back in the late 1970s They were full back then.
There was a time when the Doms had residents from the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War 1. They kept them separated by wards because they all thought their war was the ‘Big One’ and tended to try to injure one another over it.
Back then they fed everyone in a single building, had formations most days with everyone required to wear a uniform and turn out on the streets. And they were kept busy repairing, landscaping, even digging clay for the bricks to build and repair the buildings on the campus.
The old house I live in was built in 1896 by these old guys, and it’s easy to see they weren’t carpenters.
Beginning January 1, 2018, they began some renovation on the old ‘dom’ buildings. Some entrepreneur was given a 99 year lease on the buildings and they’ll have the interiors, currently death traps, torn out so’s the buildings can be rented out as apartments.
They’ve already done that to a few others not shown here, and the campus has around 200 residents living in the four buildings. Maybe more. When they’ve done the other thirteen old ‘dom’ buildings this place is going to be jam-packed again, but with all sorts of people I imagine.
Time hurries on.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 