Dome, C.W. Post University, Greenvale, NY

Original sign in 1954

C. W. Post visited the Battle Creek Sanitarium operated by John Harvey Kellogg for his failing health. There, he was inspired to start his own cereal company based on the products used at the sanitarium.
A pioneer in the manufacture and mass marketing of breakfast cereals and other consumer products, Charles William Post (1854-1914) attempted to use his wealth to affect various aspects of early 20th-century American life.

Brand names become an important part of the American way of eating: 1912 Advertisement for Post Toasties breakfast cereal, from American Magazine.

The year was 1955 and about 200 freshman and transfer students decided to take the educational gamble of a lifetime. They enrolled in a brand new college that was not accredited, had no traditions and provided classroom learning in former horse stables and root cellars.

Described by one student as "something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel," the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University resembled anything but a college. With a stately mansion, rolling green lawns, and formal gardens, the 177-acre campus was the former Gold Coast estate of one of the world's richest women, the late Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Company fortune and daughter of its founder, Charles William Post.

Marjorie Merriweather Post

There were no funds to build permanent buildings so classes were held in Mrs. Post's magnificent 59-room Tudor mansion and in an adjacent guest house. Classrooms were actually bedrooms and servants' quarters, some still equipped with fireplaces and bathroom sinks with gold plated faucets. Students also made do with classrooms that were former root cellars and horse stables, as well as a parking lot that the first students called a mudhole.

The Dome was built in 1970.
Between 2:00 and 3:00 am on Saturday, January 21, 1978, the center dome suddenly caved in under mounds of snow and ice. Fourteen thousand students were away on Christmas vacation. No one was hurt. (1)(2)

Jerry performed here on
11/18/74 Jerry Garcia Band
9/16/76 Jerry Garcia Band

12/6/77 Jerry Garcia Band
Forty six days after Jerry perfomed here the Dome collapsed.




1.)^Levy,Matthys and Salvadori,Mario,Why Buildings Fall Down,pg.45.
2.)^http://failures.wikispaces.com/C.+W.+Post+College+Auditorium+Collapse
3.)^"Obituary: C.W. Post," American Industries, vol. 14, no. 11 (June 1914), pg. 43.
4.)^"POST: The Town". CCA: Post History