December 4, 2014

Late last week the “History of Medicine Hat” page on Facebook posted an image of the college’s main entrance showing a pond and a fountain.

The water feature isn’t either of the two ponds on campus today; this one is more of a shallow reflecting pool located very close to the front doors. It looks pretty nice to me, and I wasn’t the only person who enjoyed that image.

When last I checked, that Facebook posting had drawn 124 ‘likes, four ‘shares’ and elicited nine comments that included several questions. Viewers asked things like, “When did they have a pool? “How is this oriented to how the college is now?” and “What year was this?”

I have some of the answers to those questions, but not all.

I do know that the reflecting pool and fountain was a design feature of the original campus built in 1972. The photographer would have had their back to the Cultural centre, shooting north toward the doors – now replaced with the Centennial hall foyer -- that led directly to the college theatre.

The pond was pretty to look at, but pretty problematic, too. The story I hear is that the pond leaked incessantly. Water frequently trickled through the subsoil eventually entering the gym, not a good thing for hardwood flooring.

After frequent, expensive repairs, the towel was tossed into the ring. The pond was filled with concrete and grass. I don’t have a date for that change.

However, I’m hoping there are readers who do know.

The college’s 50^th anniversary is rapidly approaching and it would be wonderful to see the images, hear the stories, and learn much more about the evolution of Medicine Hat College from its inception in the mid-sixties to the institution we know today. We have some material in the archives, but we’d like to fill in the blanks.

If you have images, relics, or stories at home please give us a call, share by email or on Facebook, or just drop by. I can be reached at mkeller@mhc.ab.ca.