There are 53 days left until Notre Dame faces Temple in the home opener (yes, I am counting!), and I’m starting to feel the need for football to return. Sooner rather than later. Hockey is over, basketball is over, and baseball is, well, slow.
Today I have a guest post for you from a Notre Dame legacy, George Bashura. I hope you enjoy it! Cheers!
The End of an Era
The view of our Lady on top of The Dome and Notre Dame Stadium has transformed once again. At one time prior to the Notre Dame Crossroads Project, you were able to have a clear view Our Lady on top of The Dome from South Bend Avenue driving West, even after the 1997 expansion project which added 21,720 seat to the pre-existing bowl. Unfortunately, as a Notre Dame Football fan, I moved to Northern Indiana at the wrong time. The new buildings now stand in front of the view I loved to glance at in the morning. This drove me to think about, what did the landscape of Notre Dame look like before the construction started?
When I mo
ved to Granger in April of 2015, the Crossroads Project was basically six months in. The Notre Dame Crossroads project started in November 2014. As I started at my new company in the area, I would drive by the stadium in the early morning and I could still see Our Lady standing on top of the Dome and smile as I knew was home. That view would begin to disappear over the next couple months. Then one day it happened. I had lost my view of the Dome. I now had to drive by the structures that had risen up to see Our Lady atop the Dome. At this time there were just two new structures. Those structures are Corbett Family Hall and Duncan Student Center.
These structures have enveloped the East and West sides of Notre Dame Stadium. But, at least I was still able to see Our Lady. Over the next several months, O’Neill Hall began to rise, and guess what happened? The O’Neill Hall structure now took away the view I had and I was reduced to a mere sliver of a view of Our Lady atop The Dome. O’Neill Hall is going to be host to the new stadium Jumbo Tron and the Frank Leahy entrance.
Don’t Stop Believing
As I drove to work one morning, looking out of the passenger side window I noticed that the large machinery, fencing, and portapotties have been removed or greatly reduced in number. The view with the three new halls surrounding the ND Football stadium has become the new normal. However, our Lady on top of The Dome is the image that people associate with Notre Dame. Though Our lady can still be viewed from various locations off campus, I will long remember the days of my view of her on the early morning excursion to work. I will say this, not seeing Our Lady is not going to affect my believing.
~Love Thee Notre Dame
P.S. This is the view you’ll see this fall when you come back for a game!
Her Loyal ... Daughter
Lisa Kelly is a multidimensional marketing professional. She has over two decades of marketing experience and earned a bachelor of business administration and marketing from the University of Notre Dame (Class of 1993 ... Siegfried Hall!). She is a Digital Publishing Manager by day and by night is writing her third book, a continuation of "Echoes From the End Zone: The Men We Became" and its sequel "The Men We Became: MORE Echoes From the End Zone." In 2012, Lisa was crowned the "Biggest Fan of the Big East" in a blogging and social media contest, representing Notre Dame.
Read all posts by Lisa
- Breaking Discoveries in CTE Research? - March 12, 2018
- A Football Player’s Lucky Charm? - February 22, 2018
- Part II: From Football to Coffee Beans? - January 31, 2018
