{"id":3880,"date":"2015-05-29T11:26:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T11:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/?p=3880"},"modified":"2023-11-28T19:59:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T19:59:37","slug":"campus-memories-taking-a-stroll-down-lovers-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/2015\/05\/29\/campus-memories-taking-a-stroll-down-lovers-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Memories: Taking a Stroll Down Lovers’ Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Caitlin Stamm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that it is officially summer and campus has emptied out, it\u2019s a perfect time to take a wander down memory lane. There\u2019s no better place to start than by exploring Lovers\u2019 Lane!<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Cover of The Siren, October 1911<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lovers\u2019 Lane\u00a0was located on Daniel Street and Champaign, between Fourth Street and Wright Street [1], next to the Kappa Alpha Theta house. For decades, it was a spot close to campus where couples would gather to take walks.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From The Siren, November 1921<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lovers\u2019 Lane was even featured on the October 1911 cover of The Siren<\/em>.\u00a0It\u2019s no wonder the lane, and its proximity to sorority houses, was profiled; The Siren<\/em>\u2019s editor lived on Daniel Street in the Beta Theta Pi house [2].<\/p>\n

As the University replaced brick walkways with cement, a Champaign City ordinance\u00a0necessitated the removal of the great trees to create a sidewalk\u00a0[3]. A 1915 Daily Illini\u00a0<\/i>article notes, “The sentiment of the majority of people living along the street seems to be in-favor of making the new walk narrower so that the long, shaded lane may be spared to future generations of strolling lovers” [4]. This, however, was not to be the case. The trees were condemned after the\u00a0fall of 1915 and all had been removed by 1926 [5].<\/p>\n

\"Lovers'<\/a>
Lovers Lane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The loss\u00a0of the walk\u00a0meant, of course, that courting lovers needed to find elsewhere to stroll. Many couples took to University Hall. Uni Hall soon saw a\u00a0\u00a0“[c]ongestion of cooing couples” spending time on its basement benches; a\u00a0Daily Illini <\/em>article joked that\u00a0“administration [was] seriously considering changing the name of the hall to Lovers’ Lane” and that students were saving significant money on shoe leather, as they were spending less time promenading [6]. By the end of the 1930s, students were calling for a new lovers’ lane in South Campus [7]. Though no official path was constructed, students in the 1940s began calling\u00a0secluded parts of South Campus “Lovers’ Lane,” as this part of campus was\u00a0off-limits in the evenings [8].<\/p>\n

Even after Lovers\u2019 Lane was razed, it was still a popular reference point, particularly for alumni returning to campus. In the Homecoming issue of the 1921 Siren<\/em>, for example, the editors describe alumni visitors as those “who know…why the arbored walk on Daniel Street goes by the name of Lovers’ Lane”[9].<\/p>\n

As you pass by Daniel Street on our now-quiet campus, remember\u00a0the “cloistered walk for the heart smitten” so dear to the past campus community [10].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] “May Destroy Daniel Street Lovers Lane by Ordinance,”\u00a0Daily Illini<\/em>, May 21, 1915<\/a>.
\n[2]\u00a0Siren<\/em>\u00a0Vol. II, No. 1, p. 8.
\n[3]-[4]\u00a0Daily Illini,\u00a0<\/i>May 21, 1915<\/a>.
\n[5] Daily Illini,\u00a0<\/em>October 9, 1926<\/a>.
\n[6] “New Lovers Lane,”\u00a0Daily Illini,\u00a0<\/i>May 4, 1921<\/a>.
\n[7] “Throw South Campus Wide Open,” May 26, 1937<\/a>.
\n[8] “Sherman Recalls UI Daze,”\u00a0Daily Illini,<\/em>\u00a0September 27, 1963<\/a>.
\n[9]\u00a0Siren V<\/em>ol. IX no. 3. November 1921. p. 9.
\n[10] “Fate of Lovers Have to Be Decided,”\u00a0Daily Illini,\u00a0<\/em>August 12, 1915<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Caitlin Stamm Now that it is officially summer and campus has emptied out, it\u2019s a perfect time to take a wander down memory lane. There\u2019s no better place to start than by exploring Lovers\u2019 Lane! Lovers\u2019 Lane\u00a0was located on Daniel Street and Champaign, between Fourth Street and Wright Street [1], next to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,1,8],"tags":[49,192,316,318],"class_list":["post-3880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-found-in-the-archives","category-research","category-uncategorized","category-university-trivia","tag-campus-history","tag-lovers-lane","tag-university-history","tag-university-of-illinois"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11404,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions\/11404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}