Walnut Park Gate Special Collections Research Center

Page featured image content

two brick pillars with walkway in between; Bird Library in background

Page main body content

Cost: $800

Funding: Gift of Class of 1917

Design Approved: Professors Lear, Cox and Hawley

Materials: Limestone and brick

Style: Beaux Arts

Location: University Place, flanking drive leading to Machinery Hall

Notes: The main 12-foot high pylons, topped by globular lights, were situated at the original Walnut Park entrance to campus. The construction of Bird Library cut off the Gate's connection to Walnut Avenue. The Gate, or entranceway, was the first step toward that the idea that the entire university should become walled in like the universities of England. No such wall was ever built.