In the spring issue of College Newsletter, I wrote about house traditions, those serious/silly expressions of residence hall culture. One of the most famous traditions is the Linn House signature wall at Burton-Judson Courts. The wall preserves the names of Linn House residents over the past 30 years—but not the name of the artist who created it. That piece of Linn House tradition, ironically, had been long forgotten until an e-mail from Donald A. Smith, AB’92, a physics professor at Guilford College (Greensboro, NC), arrived in my mailbox.

“I was particularly surprised and delighted to see the article about the Linn House lounge wall of fame. I lived in Linn House from the fall of 1988 through the spring of 1990. I remember that book on the wall quite well—I painted it!”  

As the College Newsletter article explained, Linn House and Mathews House merged in 2010, and the room with the signature wall, formerly the house lounge, was converted into a double room. Wanting to preserve the tradition, the student leaders of Linn-Mathews sent a letter to the first-years assigned to live in the room, explaining the wall’s significance and asking them to take care of it. But the letter contained a factual error, Smith pointed out:

“There is one small problem. The letter quoted says that Linn House residents started signing their names on the wall in 1983. Not so. We painted the lounge in the fall of 1988, my first quarter there. But I can see how the confusion arose. When we started putting the names in, we tried to retroactively include all the names we knew of people that had lived in the house in previous years. And our records went back to 1983! So although the names go back to 1983, we didn’t actually start painting them on the wall until 1988. I suppose there’s no way to correct a letter written in 2010, but I thought someone ought to know. I am attaching a few pictures as evidence.”  

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“The first photo shows me (with the ruler) working on drawing the guidelines for people to sign (my roommate Marcello Cherchi [U-High’88, AB’92, AM’92, PhD’96] is looking on).”  

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“The second photo shows me and our resident head [Rafi Kopan, PhD’89] celebrating the finished painting.”  

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“For kicks, I’m also including this third photo, which is the coat of arms we invented for Linn House and put on the adjacent wall. I am truly stunned to think that any of that is still there. Really? I heard a rumor it had eventually been painted over.”  

Indeed the signature wall is still there, and now I wanted to know more. Who came up with the idea? How long did it take to paint? Did any Linn residents choose to remain anonymous, rather than having their names preserved for decades to come? Alas, latex paint is sometimes longer-lasting then human memory.

“Honestly, I can’t remember how we decided to do it. I think we were brainstorming fun things to do that would foster a sense of community at a house meeting, and the idea emerged out of the conversation. I don’t even remember how I came to be the one to paint it. Probably because I can do calligraphy.

“At this remove, I’m not sure I could look at the picture and tell you someone was missing. It’s possible, of course, but I think if someone decided to opt out, that decision was respected. I don’t think anyone was pressured to do it—we just thought it would be a fun legacy to leave behind.”  

Smith mentioned he had kept a journal “very sporadically,” and would check to see if he had recorded anything about the creation of the wall. A week or so later, he sent the following update.

“Believe it or not, I actually found that journal, and on January 21, 1989, there is an enigmatic comment that we had painted the lounge walls white, and were almost ready to paint the pictures. But no mention of how we came to decide to paint them, nor how long it took to finish.”  

That’s all he wrote.

Updated 08.28.2013