Off-Campus Housing for '52

When the freshman Class of ’52 (all 795 strong) arrived on campus in the fall of 1948, we found the class had more members than planned (as appears to be the case  for the Class of ’23).   Thus, some housing was off campus in a University-owned house at 34 Vandeventer Ave., just down the street from the Garden Theatre (The Pit).  In addition to a number of frosh and a housemother, there was on the top floor an apartment occupied by Professor P. S. Eristoff, who was teaching Russian.  The walls of his apartment were covered with portraits of czars, czarinas, and their families.  There was no doubt that Professor Eristofff was a White Russian.  Each morning he would depart  for campus on his motor bike after buckling his leather helmet under his chin, looking like a WW I  fighter pilot.  Thus the teaching of Russian at PU reached well back onto the 1940s.  Was it also taught in the 1920s and ’30s?