So there's a little NCSU tour in the works by a club which I am kind of part of. I want to gather some facts about NCSU that would spice up the tour beyond "this is the chemistry building... this is the physics building"

Things like the underground tunnels where kids like to explore, spraypaint, and get arrested. The haunting of the 1911 building, the supposed sinking of Harrelson, etc

GO!

[Edited on March 28, 2006 at 8:39 PM. Reason : links to old threads also appreciated, thx]

3/28/2006 8:36:13 PM

Here's a story I've heard but don't know if there's any truth behind it:

The reason why NCSU has so many bricks on campus is because each year, a company donates such and such amount of brick to the school. If the school doesn't manage to use all the brick alotted for that year, then the company will stop donating them altogether.

True? False?

3/28/2006 8:38:24 PM

Our original colors were pink & blue

Our official name is still "North Carolina State University at Raleigh", but the "at Raleigh" is largely ignored. There was a student-led uprising against the state's wish to call NC State "University of North Carolina - Raleigh", or "UNC-R".

Our food court in the brickyard, "The Atrium", once caught fire. Once a year these men bring this mulch and spread it all over campus so it smells like absolute hot trash everywhere you go.

We are supposed to guard our tunnels before the UNC games so they don't paint it blue. I suppose we put red dye in UNC's well if we beat them (the "if we beat them" part is extremely historically based).

3/28/2006 8:40:21 PM

there is some validity when we get called UNC-R. i think we used to be "North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. UNC-GA just wanted to drop the North Carolina State and just call us UNC-R.

3/28/2006 9:00:58 PM

We average six squirrel attacks a year last time I was in SG... one got my buddy after he threw a can into occupied trash can at the BY.

3/28/2006 9:24:38 PM

I know nutsmackr has one going already in the Lounge or Chit Chat. There's old (dead) threads too, that I'll try to round up for you. I actually like these threads.

3/28/2006 9:46:51 PM

harrelson is not sinking

DH hill is not sinking

If you want trivia and shit, visit Unversity archives, or, just hire me to do all of your tours.

3/28/2006 9:50:10 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=326416

Another NCSU Trivia thread (by nutsmackr, go figure a history major would be full of this stuff)

Actually, that may not be the best one.

[Edited on March 28, 2006 at 9:53 PM. Reason : .]

3/28/2006 9:51:21 PM

Quote :

"there is some validity when we get called UNC-R. i think we used to be "North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. UNC-GA just wanted to drop the North Carolina State and just call us UNC-R."

That name was dropped 40 years ago because everyone realized how retarded it was.

It only lasted a couple of years.

3/28/2006 9:54:16 PM

^Mr. Wood for for the dropping of UNC

3/28/2006 10:33:52 PM

Quote :

"North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh"

that makes no sense

3/28/2006 11:18:36 PM

Wikipedia credited it to a massive letter-writing campaign from NCSU alumni.

3/29/2006 6:46:33 AM

-the two wierdest looking buildings on campus, bragaw and harrelson were designed by clemson engineering graduates.

-the alumni building used to be the old Clarke Hall, which was the infirmary (sp) back in the day. During the Flu epidemic in the early 1900s, a few students and a couple of nurses died b/c of the flu. Someones ghost still haunts the building. I know a few people that used to work there, and they said many times on a weekend when they were working alone, a fire door would swing open and close all on its own.

-the smoke stack is really a nuclear missle silo (just kidding)

-Syme hall 2nd and 3rd floor on the west side used to be prime real estate when football was played at Riddick stadium. Students didn't get tickets so people used to pile in those rooms to watch the games b/c the top of the stands ended at the top of the 1st floor.

The court of the Carolinas used to have one tree for every county in the state, but i think a few hurricanes have taken care of that.

-If memory serves me correctly, there are only two non brick buildings on campus, poe and something else (can't remember)

-Any truth to there being a real nuclear reactor in the nuclear engineer building (always heard rumors)

-the bell tower was built to honor fallen graduates of WWI, and i think they added graduates from all of the other wars since then. One name on the inside of the tower does not exist, b/c he was listed as KIA and they put his name in the marble, but he turned up later as a pow or something, but he was alive, so they changed one letter in his name and made a false person on the wall. also, the last person to be put on the inside wall was a lcdr in the navy reserve. he and his wife graduated from state and he was doing a 2 week reserve time at the pentagon when it was hit by the plane on sept 11.

-the only other school to graduate more generals in the us army than state is the military academy at westpoint.

probably got more useless facts in my head but that should give you some help.

-

3/29/2006 7:12:52 PM

^there is a little nuclear reactor

3/29/2006 7:55:23 PM

^^

As of about 2 years ago, they just got a 3rd 4-star, 1968 Alumnus General Dan K. McNeil.

3/29/2006 8:20:01 PM

Quote :

"harrelson is not sinking"

yes it is. they originally planned it to be like 10 stories, but then had to stop building after it started sinking when they were starting the 4th floor.

and it was designed by an NCSU design student for his senior project, which he failed. he did another project, graduated, and years later his company was hired by NCSU to design a building for campus. He used his original design.

3/29/2006 9:16:57 PM

Non-brick buildings are Poe and Harrelson.

There is most definitely a nuclear reactor. 1-megawatt PULSTAR, came online in 1974. It's a pretty standard research reactor; does not provide any power for campus and isn't big enough or run hard enough to be particularly dangerous.

The brick story is a myth.
The sinking Harrelson and library are myths, though I don't know the story of why Harrelson is the way it is. One of the reasons was simple space efficiency; the building is incredibly space efficient. It's just an ergonomic nightmare. It's being torn down in the next 10 years, largely because it is physically impossible to make it ADA-compliant without major renovations. The ramp is too steep to meet handicapped access codes. The stairwells are too steep. There's nowhere to put a second elevator, and no room to enlarge the current one.

The soldier mistakenly listed as KIA in the bell tower was one G. L. Jeffers. When he was found to be alive, the name was altered to G. E. Jefferson.

[Edited on March 30, 2006 at 12:03 AM. Reason : g]

3/30/2006 12:01:49 AM

Quote :

"As of about 2 years ago, they just got a 3rd 4-star, 1968 Alumnus General Dan K. McNeil."

TRUE

I think he was AG at Ft. Bragg for a while

3/30/2006 10:40:39 AM

The court of the Carolinas is actually called court of North Carolina and it did indeed used to have a tree from every county (like Duff Man said) and now it doesn't because of hurricanes.

The old Music Building used to be Pullen Hall but it was burnt down (in the 60s I think) when a string of arsen occured throughout colleges in the southeast. That is why the Music Department now has to use Price Music center, which was originally built to be a book depository, hence the absence of windows and elevators.

[Edited on March 30, 2006 at 2:46 PM. Reason : s]

3/30/2006 2:46:24 PM

Echo the brick story being fake and the nuclear reactor being real.

Also, if you'll notice on the belltower, there's a spot where the stone changes color. If you look in the old yearbooks, you'll see that the belltower's construction was halted during the Great Depression. Check this out at http://www.ncsu.edu/facilities/buildings/tower.html

Also, Holladay Hall contained the entire campus at first. Again, see http://www.ncsu.edu/facilities/buildings/holladay.html

Your two best resources are the campus map and also student media. The 2002 Agromeck was the 100th anniversary book and has tons of pictures and some stories about the campus through the years.

Hope this helps your tour.

3/30/2006 3:32:16 PM

Quote :

"The old Music Building used to be Pullen Hall but it was burnt down (in the 60s I think) when a string of arsen occured throughout colleges in the southeast. That is why the Music Department now has to use Price Music center, which was originally built to be a book depository, hence the absence of windows and elevators."

The old Pullen Hall was indeed the music building, and was burnt down by a student arsonist in 1965. However, I wonder about the veracity of the second half of this statement:
-Why would they put a book depository in the middle of campus?
-Price was built in 1972, 7 years after Pullen burned. If, after 7 years of homelessness, the music department comandeered a newly built book depository, that would be nearly inexplicable.
-The campus map info on Price states that it contains 3 individual rehearsal halls, each a "building within a building" surrounded by 3 feet of open space. Pretty good explanation for its windowless nature.
-Last, and most damning, the old bookstack tower of the library was completed in 1971. One would think that a brand-new (at the time) bookstack tower would have plenty of space for the University's collection with room to grow, without the need for a cavernous depository.

As an extension of that, the old Pullen Hall stood in between Tompkins and Peele. The space is presently occupied by a parking lot. The current Pullen Hall shares the old building's name, but not its location.

3/30/2006 6:37:14 PM

well done mate

i never got up with the head contractor that morning, he had an emergency meeting, and ill have to go see the withers bell next week, you wanna come?

3/30/2006 10:39:42 PM

there have been several suicides and attempts on west campus, mainly sullivan hall's 12th floor. one guy bounced and lived but was fucked up.

you can smoke in williams hall, but not in a classrooom. go to the third floor and take a whiff. No way in hell are they going to ban smoking in the building that has done so much for NC tobacco.

they really did grow pot in the Phytotron, a research facility near bostian and gardner. it was done for a medical trial at unc in the 80s, the director of the Phytotron was the only one with a key, lockshop changed the lock before the pot went in, per a conversation with an aincent prof.

two guys climbed the smoke stack, one fell in when he sat on the top, from an old guy that worked with the physical plant.

the original juice box machine is in schaub hall, it was devloped by International paper and is serial # 1. it was used as the patent model.

look at a creamer cup at a resturant, look for UHT marked on it, its for Ultra High Temprature pasturization which dosent require refrigeration. That process was devloped at state, the machinery is quite complex and has a big ass microwave generator to power the process.

some of the first synthetic turf ( astroturf ) was worked on here by the textiles dept when it was in nelson.

we also have our own paper plant here, it makes a strip about 30 inches wide and is used for teaching in pulp and paper.

the nuclear reactor cannot be fucked with, according to a retired tech. that eats at the bowling alley if you stick your finger in the water the oils will contaminate the water surrounding the reaction and cause it to shut down immediatley. it would be a semester project to figure out how to make something bad happen.

3/30/2006 10:59:46 PM

^^^Price was never built for the Music Department. The original building, Pullen Hall, had a performance hall, among other things, for Music department concerts to be held in. Price posesses none of the structural designs that a music building would posess. The practice rooms and ensemble rooms are in no way soundproof or set up for proper rehearsals. It is obvious, even without knowing the history, that Price was not originally designed to house the Music Department.

Furthermore, the Music department was not homeless after the demise of it's original building. It did move around some, however, before it was given Price, one of it's homes being Thomson Theatre for a while.

I am not 100% sure on the validity that Price was built to be a book depository, however I have been told that on multiple campus tours with my fraternity Mu Beta Psi, which is directly linked to the Music Department and has been around for 80 years. Price was actually named after the founder of Mu Beta Psi, Major Percy W. Price.

FYI, there is a book (I've forgotten the title) by Curtis Craver, one of our oldest living brothers, that details the history of the Music Department at NCSU and it also has a lot of good information on the history of the university. You can find it in the library and there are also a few floating around Price.

3/31/2006 10:05:17 AM

^While I'm inclined to respect your arguments more because you're actually involved with the music program, I don't trust much of anything I hear on campus tours, mainly because they're the most active disseminators of the brick myth and the 65,000 Harrelson myths.

And I'd imagine Price doesn't have a performance hall because it's immediately next door to Talley, and therefore can use Stewart Theater for performances... But that is a guess on my part.

I'll see if I can't scare up a copy of that book and get some more reliable information, and report back...

3/31/2006 11:00:37 AM

^Yeah. That book really is interesting. And Stewart Theatre is an awesome performance space, however, it costs money to perform there, and not just a little bit of money. The ballroom in Talley, however, is free.

3/31/2006 11:38:31 AM

The aforementioned retarded name only existed for one or two years. For most of our early history, we were happily NC State (after NC A&M). Then, in the 60s I believe, the UNC pricks in the GA wanted UNCR, and what they came up with as a compromise was North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. That only stayed for a very brief time before we changed back to NC State.


So what was said was mostly correct, but it's not right to say that "used to be our name".




And after I typed all of that, I see that DaveOT had "It only lasted a couple of years" at the bottom of his post, and rendered my post entirely pointless. I'm going to post it anyway, because I can.

3/31/2006 11:39:22 AM

Oh yeah, Tompkins used to have a tower:



It burned down

Quote :

"Your two best resources are the campus map marko and also student media nutsmackr"

Seriously, talk to those two.


Oh yeah, and just for your own historical edification:

Quote :

"Also, if you'll notice on the belltower, there's a spot where the stone changes color. If you look in the old yearbooks, you'll see that the belltower's construction was halted during the Great Depression."

Same sort of thing happened to the Washington Monument

[Edited on March 31, 2006 at 11:51 AM. Reason : asdf]

3/31/2006 11:43:36 AM

^Yep, Tompkins is one of the few buildings to suffer a fire and be rebuilt in a form similar to the original. They trimmed down the tower and extended the building (note how the modern Tompkins is longer than the one pictured), but kept the same style. At places inside the building, in some of the stairwells, and in a couple places on the exterior, you can see where the old walls end (they kept some of the old walls when rebuilding). Thanks to ArcBoyeee for pointing that out to me.

3/31/2006 4:12:47 PM

all right now

we need to hang out soon yo

4/1/2006 12:20:49 AM

Didn't someone drive a VW Beetle up Harrelson and haven't cows been led to the top of the bell tower?

4/9/2006 2:16:56 PM

I know my friend told me that back in '94 a group of people had disassembled a guy's Mini Cooper and reassembled it in Alexander Hall. Worked perfectly, too. You know those engineers and their practical jokes

4/9/2006 6:04:52 PM

-Until approximately 6-7 years ago, NCSU and Raleigh were not oppressive police states.

4/9/2006 7:43:14 PM

I don't know who made this, but it's an awesome photochop.

The last guy jumped off Sullivan in 1997. He landed beside the dumpsters. They tore up and replaced the concrete in 2001.(Before that the blood stains were obvious). The last suicide I know of was a guy that jumped off of Cox in the summer of 2004.(landed between cox and harrelson, near the street, iirc) I've heard alumni talk about a dude jumping off Lee in the early 70's. Evidently it happens all the time.

4/10/2006 12:16:40 AM

So those were actually blood stains? Yikes. I lived in Sullivan in the '98-'99 year and definitely remember seeing those.

4/10/2006 1:03:39 AM

^^It wasn't near the street, it was right next to the Cox stairwell (on the Polk side).


Also someone fell off of Lee (apparently was sitting on the railing) the same year as the Sullivan jumper.

4/10/2006 7:07:00 AM

^yea, that's what I meant, on the side facing the street.

Now that I think about it, some dude jumped off the business school parking deck at UNC-CH while I was up there a few years back. It's an epidemic...

4/10/2006 10:33:50 AM

David Bradley, an electrical engineering instructor, invented the task "control-alt-delete."

4/10/2006 11:56:57 AM

what's that do?

4/10/2006 11:59:47 AM

you should try it sometime! haha

4/10/2006 12:00:48 PM

According to an old bulletin board in the second floor of daniels(physics dept), the electric guitar was invented at NCSU.

The area directly across Hillsborough street from the library was the second site of the state fairgrounds(1873-1928). Pogue Street is round because it used to be a racetrack.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=raleigh&ll=35.789656,-78.669748&spn=0.006318,0.009753&t=h

4/10/2006 12:21:02 PM

i think ArcBoyeee made that tompkins photoshop

4/10/2006 12:50:42 PM

From ArcBoyee's gallery:


That place got pwnt.

[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 1:30 PM. Reason : Did they keep the original brick? You can probably still see fire damage.]

4/10/2006 1:27:23 PM

4/10/2006 3:44:15 PM

UFO COVER UP!

[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 8:31 PM. Reason : ]

4/10/2006 8:29:49 PM

Quote :

"Pogue Street is round because it used to be a racetrack."

i always kind of assumed that the area where the street is right now would be the area at the top of the grandstand, and the track would go around the edge of the sunken area the garden is now in.

also, photo trick: if you colorize that burned-out tompkins, and put some heavy eqipment nearby, it looks like the current riddick hall

4/10/2006 9:22:34 PM

Quote :

"Non-brick buildings are Poe and Harrelson. "

Witherspoon is cinderblock, except for the first-story floor, which is laminated brick.

Before Talley, the area where the Atrium now is was the student center.

I've "been told" by very old professors (who love to spin a good yarn, so I'd love to know if anyone else knows if these are true or not) that the original designer assumed that everyone would use the ramp in Harrelson, and hence the stairs are steep because they were really secondary/emergency exits. Same old man insists that they were originally told they could add more stories onto Gardner. When time came around to add those stories, it was much cheaper to add the Gardner South addition than to add similar square footage in stories, hence the really ridiculous up-down of the floors throughout the building.

Brooks Hall was at one time *the* library.

In the late 70s and early 80s, NC State did not have an on-campus dining hall.

Leazar was, at one time, a dining hall.

Obvious but cool: The 1911 building and Syme basically have the same layout. I loved living in Syme. For two years, I lived in a room that overlooked "the 30 yard line". The Center For Universal Design/Old Campus Police Station was the fieldhouse back in the day. The day they tore the last of the stadium down, I felt so sad...I felt like alums who had watched games from my room should have been there as I watched the last of it come down from my room. I think the opening up of the space is gorgeous, though, and hopefully they'll build a more "East Campus" building than "Engineering Row" looking building as it's replacement.

Watauga has burned to the ground numerous times. It is also notable as the first dorm women could live in at NC State. Until it was opened to women, ladies were expected to stay with families in Raleigh.

There used to be ice equipment for Reynolds, donated by one of the Reynolds sisters who really liked ice skating. There were public skates, back in the 50s.

There's a fountain donated by a really really really early NC State class between Primrose Hall and Tompkins.

The night MLK was assasinated, they declared a curfew on campus and no students were allowed out (there was rioting in downtown Raleigh).

4/10/2006 11:36:44 PM

To complete the dining hall saga--at first it was in Holladay, like everything else. Then (I think) it moved to old Pullen. Leazar was built as a dining hall, hence the high ceilings and huge windows in the main part of the building (at least before it was subdivided). I've heard that the back section of Leazar (since the rear hall was basically a mirror image of the front hall) was used for black students during the era of segregation, though I don't know if there were enough of them to justify that??
Harris was the next dining hall, built in the 60's. It was removed from dining hall duty during the late 70's, as mentioned. Fountain wasn't built until 1989. It must have sucked to be a freshman in the interim--either heat something up in your room (if they even allowed hot plates or toaster ovens), battle the rest of your floor to use a lounge kitchen, restrict yourself to cold no-prep foods only, or spend $$$$$ eating almost every meal on Hillsborough or Western.

[Edited on April 11, 2006 at 12:12 AM. Reason : d]

4/11/2006 12:11:58 AM

gg chris, precisely

Speaking of Watauga, the original bldg was constructed in 1896, and burned completely to the ground in 1901. They rebuilt the current form on the existing foundation, and the Watauga you see today (the outer shell brick part) is over 100 years old. It's the original from 1901, with the exception of the added back part. All I've found out about the original bldg is that it was a 'double barrel' form, whatever that means. There are no pictures, no drawings. Shame.
BTW guys, I've been gathering old NCSU info for 5 years, hopefully getting enough material to compile and publish a book on NCSU Architectural History. It won't be about campus life, rather an in depth look at the buldings and their past and future roles. There is tons of information out there, and loads of cool traditions based off of buildings in the past. I want to analyze what NCSU was (ex. NC A&M and Agro-Mechanical College), what it could have become, what is is, and its future. Y'all think this is feasible? I want to make it my 3rd year architecture grad school independant study. I've got the pictures and the info.

BTW, Can anyone tell me more about Ross Shumaker? The only hits I keep getting are some manuscript in Archives about him. I've requested it for review. But, until then, anyone know anything? I mean, I know he built like 9 buildings on campus in just 3 years (1939-1941). One prime example is Turlington and Alexander Halls. He left bronze block markers flanking each of the center doors as you enter the buildings. Take a look at it next time you're in the neighborhood...kinda neato.

4/11/2006 3:58:49 AM

that book you're working on sounds cool

i wish someone would 3-D render some of the old buildings in a game engine and you could "walk" around things like riddick stadium or wander around the original pullen hall...all in color and texture

[Edited on April 11, 2006 at 4:38 PM. Reason : +]

4/11/2006 4:38:17 PM