This five-story building is located in the Park Blocks, just north of Millar Library, and was built in 1931. Located in the heart of campus, according to Portland State Housing Office, Blackstone residents can enjoy being in the center of everything from Portland's Saturday Farmer's Market to concerts and art fairs. I think it means it's a "little" noisy sometimes.I don't know why they named it 'Blackstone'. Black Stone is an Islamic object of reverence, which dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, in Mecca. The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground. According to Islamic tradition, the Stone fell from Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God. The Altar became the first temple on Earth.
In the pre-Islamic era, the legend of the Black Stone Pyramid is not considered to be a well-known pyramid. The legend states that somewhere in the Egyptian desert, there are/were the largest pyramids of the Egyptian rule. These legends also relate that the Gods built these pyramids before humans were living in Egypt from an unknown black stone. Each pyramid was almost double the size of The Great Pyramid in Giza with similar shape.
Anyway, there is a very long history behind this one name, 'Black Stone'. I don't think if many of the students who live in that building know about this. Maybe not. What about you? Did you know about it?
5 comments:
It's nice how a simple name can set you off in all kinds of directions.
Thanks for all these new (to me) ideas.
It probably has other meanings in western society. Perhaps named after an early university leader.
(Your title is missing the "t", by the way. You may want to fix it.)
No, I definitely did not and thank you for the great information, Meead. Maybe the architect knew the legends and that's why the building has and Egyptian doorway.
It's lovely, whatever the reason.
There is another building in Portland in the Nob Hill area that looks exactly like this one. It has the Pharaohs on it as well. I'm not sure of the name of it though.
I was also trying to find out more about Blackstone's twin. It was built from the same blueprints as Blackstone, at the same time and by the same contractor and I also heard that it was in Nob Hill. Has anyone heard of it?
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