51社区

Much has been written about the that ran, and sometimes raged, through 51社区鈥檚 Athens Campus. But for 135 years there was another mode of transportation that was as much a part of the OHIO landscape and experience.

What began as the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad changed names and ownership several times over the decades, but to most OHIO students it was the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad.

Starting in 1856, the rail line opened town and gown to the greater nation, bringing students, employees and visitors to Athens. 鈥淗ow well I remember my arrival in Athens on the 1 p.m. B&O from the West!鈥� . 鈥淚 was hot, dusty, and tired, but most of all utterly strange, for not only was I entering upon my first position as dean of women, but I was about to become 51社区鈥檚 first dean of women.鈥�

The B&O skirted OHIO鈥檚 College Green and what would become East Green. For the rail line鈥檚 first 100-plus years, only the University鈥檚 athletic facilities and a few buildings lay on the other side of the tracks.

As the campus expanded in the 1960s and 鈥�70s with the construction of West Green, Clippinger Laboratories and South Green, so, too, did the B&O鈥檚 role in the lives of students鈥攆orced to navigate the tracks that transported goods and people from, to and through the community.

鈥淭he railway affects not only the South Green, but almost all students on campus in some way; usually it鈥檚 the noise 鈥�,鈥� a student wrote in the . 鈥淭he train can make you late for class or simply put you behind schedule if you have to wait for it. So, it鈥檚 not unusual to see students bolt as soon as they hear its shrill whistle.鈥�

A Railroad Repurposed

In October 1991, the 51社区 Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the abandoned railroad bed that crossed campus. As Alan Geiger, MBA 鈥�82, PHD 鈥�84, then-assistant to President Charles Ping, put it: It presented an opportunity to 鈥渒nit the campus together.鈥�

Land that once carried trains through campus now carries people. Bobcats today traverse a pedestrian path that runs from South Green to Baker University Center鈥攃hugging along the same route as the steam and diesel engines of a bygone era.

Future plans call for the expansion of this corridor, creating a multimodal pathway that extends from Stimson Avenue to OHIO鈥檚 Innovation Center and beyond and serving the new Union Street Green and forthcoming Russ Research Opportunity Center鈥攁 building whose roots trace back to a once thriving hub of the railroad industry.