I learned today that the Admissions Department of the University of Arizona’s Law School is located in the Corleone Building. Arizona has always been a retirement spot for the mob, I suppose. There must be examples of this sort of thing elsewhere, too. Anyone?
{ 32 comments }
Jacob T. Levy 02.12.08 at 2:10 am
Not as funny, but the McGill pool is located in the Arthur Currie gym.
dominic murphy 02.12.08 at 2:19 am
in 1977 the US Dept of Agriculture opened a new canteen and named it after a 19th century pioneer called Alfred Packer. They said he exemplified “the spirit and fare” of the new eatery.
The building was subsequently renamed when new research revealed that Mr Packer had, in 1874, been convicted of cannibalism.
Nabakov 02.12.08 at 2:27 am
There’s more than one Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool/Public Baths around Australia.
Nabakov 02.12.08 at 2:33 am
Slightly OT, the Victorian Alps features a peak called Mt Buggery and a nearby peak called Mt Speculation.
A. Nonnie Mouse 02.12.08 at 2:47 am
In the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, the local Mental Health Authority’s building was named after James Cullen Looney. So, folk needing mental health services went to “The Looney Center.” You just can’t make this stuff up.
Bernard Yomtov 02.12.08 at 3:20 am
I recall reading a complaint from an academic to the effect that there is a building on his campus – I don’t recall which university – called Carnegie Hall, and he had been waiting in vain for 20 years for someone to ask him how to get there.
Henry 02.12.08 at 3:42 am
The George Bush Center for Intelligence at Langley is tolerably well known, I believe.
Melissa 02.12.08 at 4:08 am
Timbits (doughnut centres) are a prime attraction at Tim Horton’s, the Canadian chain restaurant.
Tim Horton, the hockey player who co-founded the chain, died in an alcohol-induced car accident that apparently was a complete smash up.
notsneaky 02.12.08 at 4:32 am
Couldn’t it just reflect the presence of, you know, random, Italian Americans, rather than Italian Americans In The Mob, since Corleone was a place, not a person.
(and I guess one oughta substitute Sicilian for Italian there)
Giotto 02.12.08 at 4:52 am
On the subject of Corleones, and McGill: While most of the McGill library’s movies on DVD are in the humanities and social sciences library (and some with noteworthy scores are in the Music library), the DVD of The Godfather is kept in the business (“Management”) library.
Not that Smedley “I was a gangster for capitalism” Butler wasn’t pointing this out decades ago…
Dan Simon 02.12.08 at 5:17 am
On the subject of Montreal universities, the Pavillon Lionel Groulx at l’universite de montreal is directly adjacent to the Samuel Bronfman Library.
SG 02.12.08 at 5:47 am
I think Adelaide University had a building named after a controversial figure in Aboriginal genocide. Don’t remember any details though, my undergrad days are largely a blur.
Quo Vadis 02.12.08 at 8:11 am
The Jr. High school I attended was named Slaughter Jr. High. Every morning hundreds of children would be sent to Slaughter.
Appropriately the Principal of the school was Mr. Savage.
magistra 02.12.08 at 8:44 am
A friend of mine at Oxford, in a fervent moment suggested re-naming the ‘Rhodes House Library’ as the ‘Rhodes the Genocide Library’. And Bristol is full of things named after Edward Colston the slaver. Though whether that’s worse than Duke University taking that name to please a tobacco baron, I don’t know.
john b 02.12.08 at 12:04 pm
“A friend of mine at Oxford, in a fervent moment suggested re-naming the ‘Rhodes House Library’ as the ‘Rhodes the Genocide Library’.”
Surely he’d need to be Welsh-born to be referred to as “Rhodes the Genocide”?
Barry 02.12.08 at 1:31 pm
Jacob, I don’t get the irony. I read the Wikipedia article on Gen. Currie, and didn’t see anything. Could you please fill me in?
Jacob T. Levy 02.12.08 at 3:07 pm
It depends on a different spelling. Check out Arthur Curry.
rea 02.12.08 at 3:42 pm
I don’t get the irony.
Check out Arthur Curry.
That’s odd, and kinda funny, but no more ironic than rain on your wedding day . . .
Barry 02.12.08 at 3:52 pm
Thanks, Jacob.
Gene O'Grady 02.12.08 at 4:05 pm
My understanding was that the Alfred Packer dining room was named by people who were perfectly aware of what Packer did and were joking; the rename was by embarrassed superiors. Packer in fact is not famous for anything other than his dietary habits.
On the subject of Western cannibalism Keysburg the cannibal (more significantly murderer) from the Donner Party, a thoroughly despicable person, later in life opened a restaurant in Sacramento. It went bankrupt and he died on the streets. Which may be the only argument against having lynched the guy in 1847.
anchor 02.12.08 at 4:11 pm
American University’s student center was the Adnan Kashoggi building (in the 1990s)- not sure if his name is still on it.
Michael Bérubé 02.12.08 at 4:23 pm
If only Rutgers had a Hoffa Building! Then we’d finally know for sure that he’s not buried under one of the end zones in the Meadowlands.
rea 02.12.08 at 4:33 pm
Hoffa . . . Then we’d finally know for sure that he’s not buried under one of the end zones in the Meadowlands.
Well, of course, he’s not under one of the endzones in the Meadowlands! He was kidnapped in Detroit, never to be seen again. Why transport him all the way to Jersey to dispose of him? He’s under one of the Detroit freeways . . .
ninety_nine 02.12.08 at 6:06 pm
I’m tempted to dig up an academic building named ‘Black xxx’ as a caustic riposte. Normally, this stuff washes off as easily as someone who casually refers to Italian men as ‘guidos’ since it is indeed not as volatile as calling a black man a thug — or far worse — but for some reason it sticks that an academic blog would bother with such a sorry jape. Presumably the building is named for a donor who was proud enough of their place-name heritage to not change it because of a work of fiction.
Moreover, it also champions a particular concept of judicial order. After all, most attorneys lust after a record of success on the order of Tom Hagen, do they not?
Henry (not the famous one) 02.12.08 at 6:51 pm
Heading west towards Reno on I-80 you come to an exit for the Donner Camp Picnic Area. You can look it up: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/pacificsouthwest/DonnerCamp/index.shtml
And as for where the movie belongs, back in 1973 one of my anthropology professors assigned The Godfather, along with Barth’s book on the Swat Pathan and Turner’s book on the Ndebele, in a course on cultural management of political conflict in small-scale societies. The book may have been simplistic but it also illustrated the dynamics of maintaining the peace in a context of rivals with a common interest in equilibrium–until they’re not interested any more. Or, as Professor Clemenza said, “this thing’s gotta happen every five years or so — ten years — helps to get rid of the bad blood.”
Jeff R. 02.12.08 at 8:01 pm
Couldn’t it just reflect the presence of, you know, random, Italian Americans, rather than Italian Americans In The Mob, since Corleone was a place, not a person.
It’s both. Here’s what the Wikipedia synopsis of The Godfather II says:
Arriving at Ellis Island, an immigration agent, mishearing Vito’s hometown of Corleone as his surname, registers him as “Vito Corleone”.
Kieran Healy 02.12.08 at 9:05 pm
Presumably the building is named for a donor who was proud enough of their place-name heritage to not change it because of a work of fiction.
Actually, it isn’t.
DHN 02.12.08 at 9:28 pm
Some background on the Arizona law college and the Corleone Buildings —
The law school building is being remodeled. During the remodeling, some of the law school offices are temporarily located in a building that once housed a restaurant called Corleone’s. The restaurant was owned by a non-Italian guy named Goodman (I went to high school with him), who opened it in the Godfather era in the mid-70s. When the university acquired the building, and an adjoining apartment complex, the name Corleone’s remained attached for reference.
Edward 02.13.08 at 9:53 pm
The University of Texas has buildings named after both Sweatt and Painter of the landmark 1950 Supreme Court case Sweatt v. Painter.
Wilson 02.14.08 at 2:52 am
I went to a little college in East Texas (LeTourneau University) that has just opened an auditorium called the Belcher Performance Center. Also, the campus dining hall is named B.A. Skipper.
delicious pundit 02.14.08 at 3:32 am
“But I always thought that when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Department Chair Corleone. Dean Corleone. Something.”
shteve 02.14.08 at 12:40 pm
That’s odd, and kinda funny, but no more ironic than rain on your wedding day . . .
Or ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife …
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