To Access "Aerial View of Old Cardinal Court from 1959" please go to the Illinois State University History Archive.

While looking though the archives of Illinois State University, I was quickly scrolling through the picture and saw a picture labeled “Cardinal Court in black and white.”  It may be just because I am a freshman, but I had no idea there was a student apartment complex called Cardinal Court before the new one that ISU just built. This picture of Cardinal Court from 1959 caught my eyes for two reasons. The first reason is that I am trying to live in Cardinal Courts next year and the second reason is because, as I stated above, I did not even know Cardinal Court exist until people lived in the newly-constructed apartments for the first time this year. The picture is in black and white, so I could automatically tell the picture was older. Also the picture is taken from an aerial view which seems the only way to get a picture of the whole complex. I saw a lot of old aerial view picture of buildings around Illinois State taken around this time. This plot of land looks like it was either a forest or a field used for agriculture right before Cardinal Court was built. I wonder if Illinois State already owned the land prior to building Cardinal Court or if they had to buy it from a farmer or landowner.
 I researched Cardinal Courts before it got rebuilt, and found some interesting information. In the 1950s Illinois State University decided to build Cardinal Court as a place where student who were married could reside.  This decision did not work out too well and mostly single students used it. Most of the married students ended up living in the Shelbourne Complex, another university apartment complex.  I wonder if there were a lot more married couples going to school back then because I do not see a lot of married student around now at Illinois State. One reason there might have been more married college students was because of World War II; a lot of older men were going to college after the war and had wives.
 After so many years, Cardinal Court was in serious need of renovation. Recently, they decided to completely destroy the Cardinal Court apartment buildings and rebuild them. This idea was put in to place because the south campus residence halls closed. Without south campus, ISU does not have room in the remaining dorms to fit both freshman and sophomores.  Now they allow sophomores to live in the new Cardinal Court.
Just looking at this picture makes me compare the old and new Cardinal Courts. There are many similarities and difference between them. The main similarities are that they were both in the location and that they both were housing places for Illinois State University.  However, the old and new Cardinal courts were built for different reasons. The old one was built for married students and the new one is built for unmarried sophomores who would otherwise live in dormitories.   Also the new Cardinal Court is much larger and, arguably, much nicer.  That may just be because it is newer.  Now with the new Cardinal Court, it seems that it will be part of ISU for a long time.--Jason Kolasinski

Sources
http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/dm/objects/isuhistory/351
http://blogs.ilstu.edu/illinois-state-magazine/2012/08/01/campus-living-apartment-style/