McGraw Tower is a

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

clock tower located on the campus of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

. The tower was known as Library Tower when it was first built but was renamed in 1961 in honor of either John McGraw, one of Cornell's original donors, or his daughter

Jennie McGraw Jennie McGraw, also Jennie McGraw Fiske, (September 14, 1840 – September 30, 1881) was the daughter of John McGraw, millionaire philanthropist to Cornell University and Rhoda Charlotte Southworth. In 1868, she gave the university a set of ch ...

, the philanthropist in whose honor the tower and its adjacent library were originally commissioned by Henry W. Sage. McGraw Tower has housed the

Cornell Chimes The Cornell Chimes is a 21-bell chime in McGraw Tower on the central campus of Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, United States. The chime originally had nine bells, donated by Jennie McGraw. They first rang at the University's opening ce ...

, which Jennie McGraw donated to the university in 1868, since its construction finished in 1891. The bells were moved from McGraw Hall, a separate building, which had not been designed to support the weight of the bells. The Cornell Chimes were the first chimes housed and rung on an American college campus. The chimes play music three times each day during the school year. They also ring every fifteen minutes between 7:00 A.M. and 11:00 P.M.

History

19th century

McGraw Tower was designed as part of Uris Library by William Henry Miller, and construction finished in 1891. The construction of the library and tower, then called the University Library, was funded by Henry W. Sage to be built in the memory of Jennie McGraw. Sage believed McGraw had intended to donate her estate to the construction of a library on Cornell's campus upon her death; however, this claim was contested by her husband, Cornell professor and librarian

Willard Fiske Daniel Willard Fiske (November 11, 1831 – September 17, 1904) was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York. Biography Fiske studied at Cazenovia Seminary and started his collegiate studies at Hamilt ...

. The university took Sage's view, leading to years of litigation, but eventually, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Fiske.

20th century

Pumpkin prank

On October 8, 1997, passersby noticed a pumpkin on top of the tower's spire. Because of the danger involved in retrieving it, administrators decided to leave it until it rotted and fell off. However, the pumpkin rapidly dried out in the cold air and remained on the tower until it was removed with a crane on March 13, 1998 (it was planned that Provost Don M. Randel would remove it, but in a practice run the crane basket was blown by a gust of wind and knocked the pumpkin off). Who placed the pumpkin atop the tower, why they did so, and how remain unknown. Widely considered the greatest prank in the university's history, the pumpkin prompted national media coverage, the creation of a live webcam, its own daily feature in one of the school papers, and at least two scientific inquiries into whether the object on top of the tower was, in fact, a pumpkin; morphological,

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

, and DNA analysis confirmed that it was. It also inspired a unique version of the Cornell alma mater. It was removed on March 13, 1998.

21st century

In April 2005, a

disco ball A disco ball (also known as a mirror ball or glitter ball) is a roughly sphere, spherical object that reflects light directed at it in many directions, producing a complex display. Its surface consists of hundreds or thousands of facets, nearl ...

was attached to the top of the tower. A crane was hired to remove the offending orb, costing the university about $20,000. On December 1, 2019, a large Santa Claus hat was discovered on top of the tower. On April 11, 2022, the tower resumed allowing public attendance of its chimes concerts after a near two-year hiatus caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Beginning in fall of 2023, McGraw Tower underwent a major renovation, which saw scaffolding placed up the entire height of the tower. On October 20, 2023, a pumpkin was once again placed atop the spire of McGraw Tower, 26 years after the initial prank.

References

{{Cornell, state=autocollapse Cornell University Clock towers in New York (state) Bell towers in the United States