Seismic Station (1923)

The Physics Department operates the University's Historic Seismic Station. The science of earthquakes began to be studied at Fordham in 1910 in the basement of the Administration Building. Rumblings from the offices of the University president apparently disturbed the sensitive instruments, and in 1923 the University constructed a new seismic observatory, donated by William Spain and dedicated to the memory of his son William. The observatory was built on the site now occupied by Loyola Hall and was moved first to the site of Keating Hall in 1927 and in 1931 to the present site east of Freeman Hall. According to Dan Kern '30, for several years no machinery was used to cut grass in the area of the observatory because the grass cutting machinery would have disturbed the instruments. Instead, a horse was kept on campus for the specific purpose of trimming the grass in the area of the observatory.