Dr. John W. Hopkins, President of Williams College and Landlord

Dr. John W. Hopkins was President of Williams College and he, and his aged father (who I believe was John O. Hopkins) resided in the John Hopkins Spring Mansion. They were originally from Indiana, I have learned, where the elder Mr. Hopkins had made his fortune selling bicycles. In the time I am writing of, beginning with June 1969, Dr. John W. Hopkins had been in residence at and had likely been President of Williams College since the early 1950s, if not before. I base this on a conversation I had in 2001 with a former newspaperman and his wife, who had lived on the estate from 1945 to 1954, during which period they recalled that Mr. Hopkins was their landlord.

If I were an historian, I would call these entries, "The Spring Mansion: The Missing Years (which encompass those five decades the estate was known as Williams College to its residents)" but before it was purchased by a real estate speculator in 1975, but I can only account for the years 1969-1971, plus a suspected single blip during the period 1945 and 1954)"

In 1945, after his military service concluded at the end of the great war in Europe and VJ Day in the Pacific, and no longer a merchant marine on convoy duty, one Philip Small, a graduate of the University of Chicago whose career in journalism had been delayed by World War II, relocated to California with his young wife Audrey, who on a trip to America from her native Britain at the onset of the war was advised by her father to remain Stateside as her safe passage home could not be guaranteed, which she did do and matriculated with a degree in English from the University of Chicago. The young couple moved into a small rental cottage in the Berkeley Hills on the grounds of Williams College. He'd a new civilian job, reporting and writing for the Berkeley Daily Gazette newspaper, and Audrey worked at the U.C. Library. Phil passed his spare time with wood carving and Audrey passed hers writing poetry and making elaborate string figures such as the cat's cradle, a folk art which involves story-telling while fashioning the string figures. Audrey since has published several books of poetry and string figures. In 1954, the Smalls moved from the cottage because their family numbers were increasing and they needed a larger space for their children.


During the decade following the great war, during 1945-1954, the Smalls, residents then of a small rental college in the Berkeley Hills, experienced plumbing problems and reported these difficulties and inconveniences to Mr. John Hopkins, who was landlord. Many years later, at various times between 1966-1969, my friend with the volkswagen rented that same cottage, and she, too, experienced plumbing problems and backups and had reported these difficulties and inconveniences to Mr. John Hopkins, who was landlord.

Coincidence? I don't think so.