Campanile (Iowa State University)
The Iowa State University Campanile is located on the university's central campus, and is home to the Stanton Memorial Carillon. The campanile is widely seen as one of the major symbols of Iowa State University. It is featured prominently on the university's official ring and the university's mace, and is also the subject of the university's alma mater.
History
The campanile was constructed in 1897 as a memorial to Margaret MacDonald Stanton, Iowa State's first dean of women, who died on July 25, 1895. The tower is located on ISU's central campus, just north of the Memorial Union. The site was selected by Margaret's husband, Edgar W. Stanton, with the help of then-university president William M. Beardshear.The campanile stands 110 feet tall on a 16 by 16 foot base, and cost $6,510.20 to construct.
In 1899, Edgar Stanton donated the carillon's first ten bells in memory of his late wife. Each of the original bells is inscribed with a different quotation selected by Edgar Stanton. After Edgar died in 1920, the bulk of his estate was given to the university. In 1929, a portion of this money was used to purchase an additional 26 bells that were added to the carillon in Edgar's memory. In 1956, an additional 13 bells were purchased by the Stanton Memorial Trust. One final bell was added in 1967 to bring the carillon up to a total of 50 bells. The bells and their supports at the top of the campanile weigh nearly 30 short tons, with the heaviest bell at 5,737 lb. The carillon sounds every quarter-hour and can be heard from most of campus.
In 1991, budget cuts at Iowa State and the Music Department was not able to fund a replacement for the carillon position following the retirement of Professor Richard von Grabow. As a result, the bells remained silent until September 19, when Kenn McCloud, morning disk jockey and operations manager for KCCQ-FM in Ames, locked himself inside the Campanile with intentions to stay inside until $10,000 was raised—enough to pay a guest carillonneur to play. By September 24, Ames residents, students, faculty and alumni had donated $10,700 to the "Bucks for Bells" campaign and McCloud emerged. The next morning, two ISU Alumni, Jean and Michael Steffenson, offered a leadership gift for the Campanile renovation.
On November 18, ISU Alumnus Thomas Sutherland was released from captivity in Lebanon after over six years. At one of the first press conferences following his release, Sutherland was quoted as saying,
"I was very, very moved when I heard on Voice of America a recording of the bells of Iowa State, which I particularly appreciated hearing when I was a student there on campus," Sutherland said. "So when I heard them ring out 72 bells on the occasion of my seventy-second month, I was extremely happy. So to Iowa State, I would say, 'Keep the bells ringing.'"
On December 5, an ISU Alumnus read Sutherland's comments in The New York Times and pledged half of the remaining $175,000 needed to reach the $350,000 goal for the Campanile renovation and issued a challenge to alumni to complete the goal.
In a December 1991, letter to President Jischke, an anonymous donor expressed hope that the Campanile would never again reach a point of serious deterioration. The donor contributed $1 million to permanently endow the Campanile and assure that funding would be available for future upkeep.
By the summer of 1992, the challenge had been met by over 2,700 alumni and friends and construction began.
Between 1992 and 1994, the campanile underwent renovations with major gifts from:
- Classes of 1940, 1942, & 1987
- The Stanton Memorial Carillon Foundation
- Bobbi and Roy Reiman
- Jean and Michael Steffenson
- Esther and Harold Wilcke