Glorious to View A Spring Flashback, from Extinct Eateries to Departed Dragons Jog down memory lane with the latest installment in our series showcasing vintage color photos of bygone days on the Hill Editor’s note: Do you have additional info on these images? Do you or anyone you know appear in them? Scroll down to leave a comment! By Joe Wilensky In another grab bag of vintage color photographs from the mid-1900s, we offer familiar signs of spring, a potpourri of places and spaces, and snippets of campus life and traditions from generations ago. Did you know—or, perhaps, do you remember—that the site of today’s Tang Welcome Center once housed Noyes Lodge, and boasted not just a pancake house, but a grocery store and ice cream shop? That Dragon Day used to be called Green Dragon Day, and ended in a traditional inferno on the Arts Quad? Or that Oliver’s Deli—one of Collegetown’s many bygone eateries—once occupied a prime spot at the corner of College and Oak avenues? Scroll down for our latest look back at the Cornell of yesteryear! Two views from 1983: New bells are readied for the Chimes, and uniformed Hotelies prepare to welcome guests to the Statler for Hotel Ezra Cornell. A Spring Day parade in the early 1950s passes Boardman Hall (where Olin Library stands today). From 1984: A view from inside Oliver’s Deli in Collegetown, and a collage of posters on a campus bulletin board. Open wide: Architecture students put the finishing touches on the 1984 dragon’s pearly whites. The 1984 Dragon Day beast burns on the Quad, and a sign outside Noyes Lodge in the early ’80s advertises its eateries, with Balch Hall visible in the background. Rocking it, 1977 style: A student relaxes in a dorm room complete with hi-fi, rotary phone, shag rug, and sunset posters. Top: The dragon passes by Sibley Hall on Green Dragon Day, 1970. (All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.) Published March 25, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Campus & Beyond Works of Art, Inside and Out: The Johnson Museum at 50 Alumni A Decaf Soy Latte, with a Shot of Entrepreneurship Alumni The Cornellian Behind the Slogan ‘Ithaca is Gorges’