Spring 2011 Issue - Lehman College

Before there was a Lehman campus, there were aspiring students.
In May 1929, nine young women, accompanied by their two pet dogs, set out to explore the still-unbuilt acres of land across from the
Jerome Park Reservoir that they hoped would become their college just two years from then. They called themselves “the Pioneers of ‘31.”
As they roamed, they imagined the buildings that one day would rise there, and put their daydreams into a scrapbook that has been
preserved in Lehman’s Leonard Lief Library.
1.
The Campus Lake (otherwise Jerome Park Reservoir)
Standing on the wall of the
old reservoir, we watch
the men at work,
4.
Under the Old
Apple Tree
We pause to meditate
on the future of
Hunter. Some of the
sophomore songs
from the Hunter Sing,
the strains of “Fame,”
and “Long May She
Live, Our College
Fair” float upon the
campus air.
6.
On the Rocks
At last, the adventurers must return to
civilization. Traversing the ridge, they
encounter a region of blasted rock.
We see the towers
of Hunter rising
where now all is rough
and barren. We see the
lovely green lawns and
trees and winding paths ..
7.
... and endless streams of radiant girls.
The realization of a dream! And so, the
Pioneers of ’31 bid you Good-Bye ....
8.
... and leave the campus with
one last look westward over
the rugged excavation toward
that vision of the future, the
new Hunter College.
Lehman Today/Spring 2011 21