McKeldin Mall
Rainy days often leave puddles of water on McKeldin Mall, blocking many of the pathways crisscrossing the nine-acre land stretch. To know part of the reason, you have to dig beneath the surface.
A century ago, the university filled the mall — then a deep valley with a small stream running through — with soil and channeled an underground pipe through the water to make a suitable drill field for university cadets. This filling-in, leveling, shoveling and unearthing work, which the university picked up again in the mid-to-late 1980s, resulted in the addition of soil that was insufficient to handle rain, explaining the water pools on many paths, said Ray Weil, an environmental science and technology professor.
“Water must flow from a watershed one way or another,” Weil said. “The fill soil was too compacted near the surface for good internal drainage, hence the lateral flows across the grass and sidewalks we see whenever we have several days of rainy weather.”
More recent additions to the mall also contribute to the sometimes marshy terrain. For example, there were some trickle-down effects from installing a 16-foot-by-250-foot fountain on McKeldin Mall honoring members of a chapter of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. Ten feet below the fountain, a small watershed with loose soil collects drained water through a ditch filled with gravel.
This trickle-down history lesson — not merely explained by low points that naturally collect water — was presented in Weil’s Fundamentalism of Soil Science class, ENST200. Students said the repercussions of a soil fill-in reaffirmed their appreciation of how the smallest factors, even soil, can affect the area for decades to come.
“[The connection] finally makes sense, why the mall turns into a lake when it rains,” said junior psychology major Matthew Cuozzo.
The fill-in factoid has been unknown to a large portion of the campus, as even the university’s official tour guide group, Maryland Images, said this historical factoid was not a part of its tours because the group was not aware of it, said Cuozzo, a group tour coordinator.
Flooding may not have been a pressing concern for early mall engineers, but they certainly had design in mind — many of the strip’s pathways were paved based on routes previously taken by members of the university community, according to Images. And the current sidewalks of the mall, which is the largest academic mall in the country, were put into place following major renovations in 1990.
The fountain, which aggravated irrigation issues, is also highly symbolic. Each fountain tier represents one of the leadership qualities found in ODK members, engraved with quotations from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., the symbol of ODK and a listing of fraternity members from the university, according to university archives.
The sundial, originally a gift from the class of 1965, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and friends of professor Uco Van Wijk, was also renovated with donations from the class of 1990, according to university archives.
Trecking across the mall after a storm isn’t always pleasant, said freshman Patience Williams, but only certain areasare troublesome.
“It’s annoying, but they clean it up in adequate time. It’s not that big of a hassle to walk around the puddle,
the finance and information systems major said, adding, “If it’s history, it’s fine.”
“Thats what rain boots are for,” added junior community health major Nandi McCammon.
