Campanile compendium
Tradition has it that students may enter the campanile, but must leave by the same doors they entered — or they will not graduate. (Some say students shouldn’t enter at all.)
The architect made the top of the tower nine and a half inches narrower than the base, a standard method of avoiding a top-heavy appearance; this gave rise to rumors that the tower was not vertical.
Carillonneur Elizabeth Berghout plays "Carousel," from Frank DellaPenna’s Carnival Suite
“It is hoped that the instrument can replace the University whistle for calling and dismissing classes.” — Bells Over Mount Oread pamphlet
The height of the bell tower was determined, in part, by the need to get high enough so that sound reflected off Strong Hall would go into the ground and not out to the north.
At groundbreaking, the ground was frozen so hard that after Chancellor Deane Malott had levered out the first shovelful, the second groundbreaker, Kansas Supreme Court Justice Hugo Wedell, turned over the same dirt.
C.C. Stewart, president of KU Endowment at the time of planning, offered limestone from land owned by Endowment. If that did not prove satisfactory, he offered stone from his own nearby property.
Memorial Drive was to be planted with vegetation brought from the distant places where KU people had served during the War.
Chancellor Malott wrote to Bob Hope in late 1947, inviting him to bring his radio show to Lawrence to perform a benefit for the fund.
When the campanile was dedicated, planners still expected to add an elevator and an observation deck on top.
And when Memorial Drive was dedicated, they expected to extend it to encircle Mount Oread, winding around the southern side of the campus as well as the north. It was thought Jayhawk Boulevard would be turned into a “sodded mall.”