This infrastructure project is typical of the many handled by Lou Greenspan in the 1970s and 1980s. The field near St. Peters building and the Kieran Gatehouse near route nine had constantly been wet and damp The water collected in the field because there was a stone ridge running north and south along the main road running in front of the chapel. The field collected water not only from the rain but also from drains inserted under route nine in the nineteenth century. Lou located the drain and opened a line from the drain near route nine directly into the new drain. (See the dirt patch behind lou in the lower photo reaching to route nine.)

Lou then dug a drain through the ridge. It ran across the road leading to Greystone, thorough the pine grove, past the red brick gymnasium (later converted to the Marian Dormitory), then past the newer Champagnat complex until it connected to drains under the railroad tracks. Thirty seven years later no trace of this work, which involved considerable controlled blasting of the trench, no signs are visible except for a drain in the center of the field to be drained. But when the state constructed the student underpass from the east campus, it was able to connect in to this drain to handle the drainage problems.

1974

Photograph