Roble Field was initially much larger and had tennis courts next to it. Where the current gyms are, there was nothing but green grass.
The field has seen many changes over time, from new buildings to underground garages. However, a common theme with each of these changes was the continual decrease in the size of the field.
Deana would take walks around the field during her breaks, while her co-workers would play tennis. She would also enjoy watching her students play ultimate frisbee. The space was somewhere people were able to come together and interact, especially through physical activity, such as volleyball.
The field was under construction for the past two years while the University built an underground garage. While the garage is complete and open, the field remains closed to the general public. Now Deana can only look upon the field and feel a little bit sad.
Interviewee: My name is Deana Fabbro-Johnston. I’ve been at Stanford 37 years. My connection to this particular place, which is Roble Field, goes back probably a good 34 years or so, at which time where we’re sitting was part of the tennis courts, because there used to be tennis courts out here, and beyond the tennis courts, where a lot of my friends would play over lunchtime, was just this expanse of field. And it was great because I would take part of my lunch hour and walk around the field. That was my, you know, exercise. And when I moved from Bio to Earth Systems, was post-earthquake, and it was in 1992. Some of the surge space was Bambi and Godzilla, and it’s the two modular trailers that sat right here, but we still had this beautiful field, so it was great. The tennis courts had been changed to parking lots. You know, that happens. So, I had a window that overlooked, not only the parking lot, but I could walk outside and be right here at this beautiful field. So I continued to, you know, enjoy the field, and do walking, and brought students out here. And we’d sit outside when the weather was beautiful, etc.
Okay, fast forward to, I don’t know, maybe 20 years ago. We’re living in the Mitchell building, and a lot of us would walk over here, again, to walk the field, to enjoy the field, but I had a lot of students who played multiple…sorry…Ultimate Frisbee. You need to edit that. Ultimate Frisbee, and this was the Ultimate field, so it was great. We’d walk out here and watch the kids. When I was leaving after work I’d see them and so I’d stop and just hang with them. It was really a good connection of a place for me. I loved Roble Field. Okay, then, to my chagrin, within the past five years, we have this brand new swimming pool recreation center at the far end of the field. And I understand we need that facility on this end of campus, so I got used to that and [inaudible 00:02:51], but the field was still here. And now we’re in a time when [inaudible 00:02:57] would play volleyball camps with the ESS department and, you know, ESS faculty members and the faculty director of Earth Systems, so we played out here. We would do a lot on the field. And we’d, all of us [inaudible 00:03:18] took advantage of the field because it was here. And I’ve had a long-term connection with this field. Then, two years ago they started digging a hole in the field, and it closed everything down, because they were putting in an underground parking garage, which just opened maybe three months ago. On the other side of, now, most of the paved upper part of the parking garage, there’s a little, teeny piece of lawn, grass, that is what’s left of Roble Field. It’s very sad to me.
Erica: So it used to be a lot bigger?
Interviewee: Oh, it was, the…you can’t really see, but I’m going to point it to you, Erica. From the end of the Arrillaga Building, okay, all the way down to the back end of the Roble Building, the Roble Gym, this was all field. The whole entire thing was field.
Erica: Thank you.
Interviewee: You’re welcome.