The View above Prospect Hill - Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI. 4k video

This is one of my favorite spots to fly from especially in the golden hour of both day and night. You get a great views of not only downtown Kalamazoo in the east but also the campus of Western Michigan University which sprawls out in the west and Kalamazoo College north from this vantage point and. Heritage Hall is also well lit and allows for some nice low light photography and video and as an architecture buff, I love the old but restored part of the original WMU campus. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoy!
On May 27, 1902, Governor Aaron T. Bliss signed the Michigan Legislature bill authorizing Michigan’s fourth Normal School. The location of the new school was awarded to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in a vote by the state board of education on August 28, 1903. The original tract of land on which the Western State Normal School was built was donated by the city of Kalamazoo. It consisted of 20 acres on Prospect Hill, overlooking the city, accessible either by walking up from Davis Street on the east or via Asylum Road (now Oakland Drive) on the west.
Administration Building (East Hall)
Battle Creek architect E. W. Arnold and John C. Olmstead of the renowned Olmstead Brothers landscape firm participated in the site selection. Later, in 1904, John C. Olmstead devised a landscape and planting plan for the new campus. The plan was well received, but financial considerations prevented it from being implemented. The first building, the Administration Building, was completed and occupied on September 1, 1905, although classes had actually started in temporary quarters in 1904. Dwight B. Waldo was selected as principal (later changed to president).
Initial enrollment was 107 students. By 1909, two wings had been added to the first building: the Training School and the gymnasium. Together these became known as East Hall. Its three columned porticos and lit cupola could be seen from afar, and inspired Will Rogers to dub Prospect Hill “the Acropolis of Kalamazoo County”. East Hall was listed with the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
From the beginning, access to the Prospect Hill site was an issue because of the steep grade elevating it above the city. In 1907, funds were appropriated for an electric railway. “Normal’s Railroad”, or the "Western Trolley”, carried people up and down the hill from its base on Davis Street to the summit at the grassy lawn between East and North Halls.
The trolley operated until 1949, by which time the campus was moving in new directions and the automobile was making inroads as the preferred method of travel.
Western Trolley
By the early 1940s both the school and its facilities had expanded. The Western State Normal School became the Western State Teachers College in 1927, and then the Western Michigan College of Education, in 1941. Paul V. Sangren became President in 1936.
The Western campus grew from 20 acres to nearly 60, from one building to over a dozen, including athletic facilities and residence halls. It comprised roughly all the land bounded by Prospect Hill (now called Normal Hill) on the east, the Michigan Central Railroad in the valley on the northwest, and Austin Street and the State Psychiatric Hospital to the south. Enrollment in 1940-41 was 2,620.
Known today as East Campus, or Historic East Campus, it was registered with the National Register of Historic Sites in 1990 as the Western State Normal School Historic District.
- Historical information provided by Western Michigan University
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