Does your college town suck? Purdue University

New to the line up this season: we will be examining the various college towns of Wisconsin’s opponents. We’ll be answering all of the important questions – Is it a state capital? What is the population? Does it have a Culver’s?

Facts:

City: West Lafayette, Indiana

Size: 13.81 square miles

Location: 40°26′31″N 86°54′45″W

Population: 44,595 (2020)

State Capital? No

Time zone: Eastern

Landmarks: Wabash River, Samara House, University of Purdue

About:

West Lafayette, which is the most densely populated city in Indiana, has a sister city in Lafayette, which is across the Wabash River.

The city was originally named Chauncey, which was created when three towns merged together – Chauncey, Oakwood and Kingston. The newly formed town took shape in 1866. Purdue University, which is a land-grant university meaning that the land was gifted to start the university, opened in 1869. John Purdue donated the land and money to start the school.

The school itself is considered a research university and is classified as having very high research activity. Maybe they should research why their athletics teams aren’t very good…

Two years after the school opened, Chauncey voted to be annexed by Lafayette because it was unable to provide improved streets, waterworks, police and fire protections. Lafayette voted against sending Chauncey to sit back with Tobey and Kelly. IYKYK. Lafayette did so, because of the cost.

Sheesh... sisters...

However, Chauncey finally had something go its way when it voted to change its name in 1888, when it became West Lafayette.

Fast forward to 2013, when West Lafayette approved an annexation that placed most of Purdue University within its municipality for the first time.

One popular tourist attraction in West Lafayette is the Samara House, which belonged to Purdue professor Dr. John Christian and his family. The house was designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The home is one of the most complete homes designed by the architect in the United States. The home was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2015 and is a great place to view Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian design.

The house is named after the winged seeds from pinecones and still to this day, features more than 40 of Frank Llyod Wright’s architectural innovations.

Bars:

Harry’s Chocolate Shop is rated as 4/5 stars on Yelp, which is very confusing, since the main picture for Harry’s on Yelp is a pint glass, with an insect in it…

I mean, who doesn’t love the crunch of an exoskeleton when sipping on a pint of their favorite cerveza.

The Boiler Up Bar is another local establishment, that is self-coined as the most refined cocktail lounge on Purdue’s campus. Cough, Seems a bit pretentious...Cough.

Sorry, I had something stuck in my throat, must have been the bug from Harry’s.

The bar featured farm-inspired cocktails, which feature fresh garnishes provided by the College of Agriculture. They also feature a number of bourbons and other whiskeys from Indiana’s finest small-batch distilleries.

Boilermakers should consider themselves lucky, as West Lafayette features two different Culver’s restaurants.

Stadium:

Ross-Ade Stadium is the home of the Purdue Boilermakers football team. Built in 1924 to replace the previous stadium, Stuart Field, Ross-Ade seats 57,236 fans. When the stadium was built, they broke ground on June 2, 1924 and the stadium opened later that November – meaning it took five months to build…? That cannot be up to code, although back then I am sure they didn’t have much in the way of construction codes.

Luckily the stadium was expanded in 1930, 1949, 1955, 1964 and 1969 and then renovated in 2002, so I guessing they fixed any mistakes that were made when it was originally constructed.

The most recent renovation in the early 2000’s were done as part of three-phase process. The first phase replaced the press box, added outdoor club seats, expanded the main concourse, added new bathrooms and concessions, added a new “grand staircase” to the south end of the stadium and replaced all of the concrete and benches.

Phases two and three have yet to begin.

Oh and their stadium is large enough for their large drum to fit through... I’m looking at you Notre Dame...

Since then, the school has added permanent lights to the stadium and added a memorial to Tyler Trent, who was a superfan of the Boilermakers and student, who passed away from osteosarcoma in early 2019. Purdue renamed the Student entry gate, the Tyler Trent Student Gate.

Does your college town suck?

Where to begin? It constructed an entire stadium in a matter of months, which is impressive, yet also terrifying. It bickers with its sister constantly and wants to get as far away from her as possible.

The bars are pretentious and feature insect chasers in their beers...but they do have two Culver’s...

Regardless of the Culver’s, it sucks.

But I will say that the Tyler Trent Memorial is great.