Return to South Bend Index

On this trip, I visited the Notre Dame campus.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, built in 1871, has the most elaborate interior of any place of worship I’ve seen in recent years.

The 1879 Main Administration Building with its Golden Dome may be the most recognizable college structure in the U.S. The dome was restored in 1999.

Millard Sheets’ 132-foot mural, “The Word of Life,” was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul V. Phalin of Winnetka, Illinois. It was installed at a cost of $200,000 and was unveiled in 1964. Eighty-one different kinds of stone, in 171 finishes, from 16 countries, were used in its fabrication.

Designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and dedicated in 1986, the Clarke Memorial Fountain honors some 500 Notre Dame alumni who died in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. It stands on the site of the Old Fieldhouse, torn down in 1983, and was underwritten by alumnus Thomas Shuff, of Lake Forest, Illinois and by Maude Clarke, of Chicago, in memory of her husband John.

The stone slabs that comprise the arches were quarried in Southern Indiana and weigh twenty tons each. The red granite sphere represents the earth, the water symbolizes life, and the stone columns were crafted by the hand of God.

Infrastructure

Diminishing Light

The next morning, South Shore train #12 to Chicago at 5:25 a.m.