John W. Nason

The Nason Garden and Outdoor Classroom is named for the seventh president of Swarthmore College, who "helped get more than 3,000 American students of Japanese descent out of detention camps and place them in institutes of higher learning" during World War II (The New York Times, November 2001).

According to the Scott Arboretum website, the Nason Garden was specially planted to be enjoyed during each season. Its horticultural foundation is plant texture and it features both "bold" and "fine" textures. Texture is defined as the "overall structure of a plant, which includes the leaves, the form and even the bark" (Scott Arboretum, 2006 ).

The plants in the garden include the prickly pear, the Japanese Maple, plantain-leaf sedge, spike winterhazel, switch grass, tiger eye sumanc, and oxeye daisies. For a complete listing, please see the Arboretum brochure on the garden.

Fallen Bloom

Found Art

Caer Paravel

Clothier Hall

Designed in 1929 by Karcher and Smith and completed in 1931; Collegiate Gothic style.



The main student center (it houses a dining facility, the main party space, an all-campus space, a mini pool hall, the SCCS lounge, and the bookstore) and also the campus timekeeper (the bells ring every 15 minutes).

Seat of a student meeting in 1969, when African American students agitated around the issue of admissions policies towards admitting Black students to the college:

"At 12:15 pm on Thursday January 9, members of SASS occupied the Admissions Office. They taped black paper to the windows, locked the doors, and asked the admissions officials to leave. At 2:15, they called press conference in the College Commons...They presented their earlier demand again, adding the demands that Blacks be included in the process of implementing all relevant College policies, and that no disciplinary action be taken against them. Several hundred students met in a session in Clothier Hall that evening. They endorsed the SASS demands, and asked the faculty to postpone all academics for two days. About 100 students walked out of the meeting to plan more radical action, agreeing to endorse the SASS takeover of the Admissions Office. " excerpt from The Phoenix, March 7, 1966


Trivia: Clothier Hall was part of a series by Wedgewood. Produced in 1941, this Queensware plate features a maroon graphic of the hall, and is framed by Quaker symbols on the rim of the plate. The back is labeled with the name of the building, the College name, and a brief Wedgewood inscription.

Wedgewood also made a similar plate bearing an image of the Quaker Meeting House on Swarthmore's campus.