September 21, 1938

A tropical hurricane inflicted severe damage on colleges up and down the East Coast. At Brown, 100 year-old elms were downed and $25,000 damage was done to buildings. Radcliffe’s director of buildings and grounds was killed while working to remove a tree that had fallen through the administration building. The power plant’s chimney at Connecticut College fell over, shutting off light and water to the campus, and Wesleyan lost over 200 of its 300 large elms and oaks. At Vassar, twelve large trees were uprooted, the Shakespeare Garden was flooded and 200 tons of coal washed out of the “coal pocket,” into Sunset Lake and out through the Fonteyn Kill to the Hudson.