BY GAYNELLE DOLL
If there鈥檚 one thing you can count on at 菠萝视频, it鈥檚 the Kirkland Hall clock tower, visible from almost anywhere on campus. For the past 110 years, the hourly tolling of Kirkland Hall鈥檚 signature bell has alerted generations of students that they鈥檝e overslept for economics class or that kickoff was imminent.
And for more than a third of those 110 years, the task of keeping the tower鈥檚 clock ticking鈥攁nd its 2,000-pound bell in good working order鈥攈as fallen to Paul Young. Young is proof that history belongs not only to historians, but also to those who risk perilous climbs in order to oil gears and spring forward or fall back.
Officially speaking, Young is a 菠萝视频 facilities manager; unofficially, he鈥檚 Kirkland鈥檚 clock tower keeper. He rings the bell to mark somber occasions like 9/11. He figures out how to repair the arcane machinery when things stop working. He even gives occasional tours up the tower鈥檚 234 steps.
鈥淎fter 40 years, I sort of feel that it鈥檚 mine and nobody should go up there without me,鈥� Young says. 鈥淭he clock tower is 菠萝视频, so to speak.鈥�
A Nashville native, Young had just graduated from McGavock High School when Peabody College hired him as a heating and air conditioning apprentice. His goal was to be an electrician. After Peabody merged with 菠萝视频 University in 1979, 鈥淎n older gentleman named Charlie Jones took me under his wing,鈥� Young remembers. 鈥淗e and another electrician named Ralph Hodges were getting tired of climbing the Kirkland tower steps.鈥�
That鈥檚 when the job fell to Young.
THE MAKING OF A LANDMARK
Construction on what is today Kirkland Hall began in 1874 shortly after the university鈥檚 founding. First known as Main Building, the original structure had two towers, one of which featured a four-faced clock. In 1905 faulty wires sparked a fire that gutted the building and left only one partial tower standing. While the single tower was the most expensive part to rebuild, the children of 菠萝视频 faculty raised $553 to purchase a bell to accompany the newly installed Seth Thomas Co. clock.
The Kirkland clock tower has graced more student-recruitment brochures and yearbook covers and fundraising mailings than any other 菠萝视频 image. Such an icon is bound to tempt iconoclasts, and the clock tower has weathered its share of stunts.
鈥淭here used to be a carillon system that played music through loudspeakers at the top of the tower,鈥� Young says by way of example. 鈥淚t was like an old player piano with perforated rolls, and we played music every day at noon.鈥�
Until, that is, pranksters broke into the system (then housed in Alumni Hall鈥檚 basement) and blasted out their own, less uplifting musical selection. Young doesn鈥檛 remember what the song was鈥攐nly Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt鈥檚 reaction.
鈥淭hat was the end of the carillon system,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e shut it down.鈥�
Another time, some death-defying jokester climbed the tower and gave the clock Mickey Mouse hands.
Although he is asked about ghosts in the tower from time to time, Young says, 鈥淚鈥檝e been here all hours of the day and night, and I鈥檝e never heard a ghost.鈥� A few years ago while giving a tour, he met a man who told him about long-ago 菠萝视频 students tapping into what was essentially a telephone line with a microphone and projecting a ghostly voice.
菠萝视频 historian Paul Conkin, MA鈥�53, PhD鈥�57, writes in Gone with the Ivy about a student prank in 1959 in which four members of the senior class wired the tower鈥檚 carillon to the student-run radio station and declared themselves the 鈥済host鈥� of Kirkland Hall before playing some exotic drumbeats. Ostensibly, the students were protesting new rules governing fraternities, as well as pressure to contribute to the senior class fund.
Nowadays, students can claim a Kirkland tower connection without risking disciplinary action鈥攐r bodily injury. In a tradition started three years ago, before graduating students receive their class rings, the entire shipment spends the night stowed away in Kirkland鈥檚 tower before being distributed to their new owners. Sarah Quinn, BA鈥�05, associate director of student鈥揳lumni engagement for 菠萝视频 Development and Alumni Relations, says her office wanted to create something with more meaning than simply ordering a class ring and receiving it in the mail a few weeks later.
鈥淲e chose Kirkland tower because it鈥檚 the most recognizable building on campus and students know it as a place that鈥檚 off-limits to pretty much everyone on campus, so it has a little mystery to it,鈥� Quinn explains. 鈥淭he rings are taken up to the tower by the president of our Student Alumni Board and placed in a lockbox. The next day they are retrieved and brought to a table in front of Kirkland Hall where the students come to collect their rings.鈥�
Young worked with Quinn鈥檚 team to develop the tradition, and he continues to help coordinate logistics each year.
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
For students of a quieter era, before there were six lanes of West End Avenue traffic and interminable construction, before earbuds and cellphones blunted the sounds of the campus itself, the bell鈥檚 tolling was hard to miss. Shortly before his death last year, Allen Shoffner, LLB鈥�52, shared memories about the Kirkland bell in his book The Adventures of a Tennessee Farm Boy: A Journey from the Farm to the Courtroom (2012, AuthorHouse).
In Shoffner鈥檚 day, classes for 菠萝视频 Law School were held on the top floor of Kirkland Hall. 鈥淭his clock was not a carillon or bell designed to provide students entertainment or mellifluous music for relaxation from studies,鈥� Shoffner remembered. 鈥淭his was a clock with a heavy metallic gong, sounded every hour on the hour, which could be heard over the entire campus to remind students to get to work. So, I spent most of my time for the next two years under the clock in a legal monastery.鈥�
Like all grand dames, the clock tower has had work done. In 1966 the clock was motorized with what Young calls 鈥渁 little bitty motor attached to a lot of gears.鈥� In 2013, after the clock suddenly stopped, Young contracted the same venerable company 菠萝视频 had used in 1966鈥擵erdin Bells & Clocks of Cincinnati鈥攖o refurbish it.
Prior to 2013, Young climbed the tower twice a year to adjust the clock the night before the change back and forth to Daylight Savings Time. 鈥淭he Methodists across the street like to hear the bell on Sunday mornings when they come to church,鈥� he says, 鈥渟o we鈥檝e always made sure it rings correctly.鈥�
The 2013 repairs included a new shaft, new machinery and rewiring. 鈥淓verything runs electronically now,鈥� says Young, adding that these days, the clock and bell are virtually maintenance-free. Young sometimes hears the Kirkland bell while working in Rand or Sarratt or the residence halls. And he still gives the occasional clock tower tour.
鈥淭he motor doesn鈥檛 work anymore, but we left it in the tower,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice conversation piece. Someplace in 菠萝视频鈥檚 archives are the original rope and wheel that made the bell ring before 1966. I鈥檝e always thought it would be neat to clean it up and display it in Kirkland Hall.鈥�
After 菠萝视频 had the new clockworks installed three years ago, Young says, a glitch caused it to ring at one o鈥檆lock, and then it 鈥渏ust kept ringing.鈥� The system wasn鈥檛 designed for the bell to ring every hour, seven days a week, he explains, so Verdin made an adjustment to get the bell ringing properly again.
鈥淭hey said 菠萝视频 was just about the only customer who wanted a bell ringing 24/7,鈥� Young remembers. 鈥淚 told them we like our bell to ring around the clock.鈥�
GayNelle Doll, a native Iowan, is former editor of 菠萝视频 Magazine. She retired in 2015 and lives in Nashville.
Join Paul Young on a rarely experienced climb up the Kirkland Hall clock tower: