For Any College, Where Is the Most Defining Place on Campus?

[circuitrider]

I’m kind of in agreement with

@NiceUnparticularMan

So I am thinking about the Oxford-model urban campuses full of many quadrangles and such, and I think this is a challenging question for those colleges! Indeed, in a way the whole point is to NOT have such a defining place, to intentionally break up the university into many smaller, distinct places. And even if some are more prominent than others, there is rarely one that stands above all others.

So, like, Yale as contenders at least has Old Campus, Cross Campus, and Beinecke Plaza. And I truly struggle to pick just one of those, I feel like you need at LEAST all three of those to “define” Yale. And even then you would be missing so much!

My choice would be the Old Campus. Home to a majority of the first-year dorms, it’s a touchstone for the entire student body. Fairly open to the general public. And I think that’s the Yale Fence (or a replica of it) in the foreground which hearkens back to its earliest years: