Then & Now

Inner Quad

The classrooms around the Inner Quad were Stanford’s first campus buildings. They enclose a space that was for years the only place large enough to hold the growing campus community – a place to meet, to socialize, to hold joyful assemblies and solemn ceremonies. Here, some male students relax and read in 1902.

Today, the Quad remains the heart of the university and scene of cherished rites of passage. Freshmen and transfer students meet here in September for Convocation as they orient themselves to life at Stanford. Later, as graduating seniors, they stream from Memorial Church into the Quad for Baccalaureate in a passage that symbolizes their entrance into the wider world.

Photos: Stanford University Archives/Linda A. Cicero, Stanford News Service

Montage: John Holleman