Here's an aerial view of that same quad we've been looking at. In 1952-53 the University was emerging from a huge growth program and had finished coping with postwar enrollment surges brought on by the GI Bill.

So it was, at the middle of the century that A.P.I. was looking ahead to a prosperous future. The academics were up -- the university had become one of the premiere institutions in the South -- enrollment was up, and football's rise to national prominence would soon be realized. This is the Alabama Polytechnic Institute of students in the mid 1950s.

You can see Samford to the right of the shot and Ross Hall, the old chemistry building in the center of the photograph. Langdon is partially obscured by the trees. In the mid-ground to the left are Wilmore Laboratory and Ramsay Hall. Wilmore was built in 1948 and Ramsay stretches back to 1925. Both house engineering classes and their professors today.

Things are changing in the foreground. Foy Union will one day sit on the bottom left of this picture next to Ross and Wilmore, but is not even a glimmer in anyone's eye, being two decades away. On the right margin you can see Mary Martin Hall. That was the library until the current, and much larger, facility was built in 1962.

So a lot of changes were soon coming, but this has long been an area of progress. In 1918, this area looked like this.

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