GAMBIER — Peirce Hall, the tallest building on the campus of Kenyon College, rises 100 feet above The Hill, its tall tower an impressive sight above the trees. It was built in 1929 and is under renovation. The Great Hall, with dark wood, lofty ceiling and dramatic detail, resembles Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the series of Harry Potter movies.
“Peirce is the icon of the campus,” said Tom Lepley, Kenyon’s director of facilities planning. “Everyone is through here, visitors, students, faculty and parents, they all pass through here at some time.”
Except for construction workers, Peirce and its tower are empty while the renovation continues, but signs of antiquity and modern college life are everywhere: Old stairwells and pewter chandeliers, archways and vaulted ceilings, brass railings, purple doors and signatures and sayings of students scribbled on the walls.
“The stone for Peirce Hall came from Briar Hill Quarry near Glenmont,” said Lepley. “That was the original stone for all the buildings on campus.”
The quarry also supplied the new stone being used in the renovation.
The steps to the four-story tower are wide and safe. Each set of casement windows show the campus becoming smaller and smaller at each level. The tower’s first floor was recently the headquarters of The Kenyon Collegian, but the tower will now remain empty.
“There’s no egress, you see,” explained Lepley. “If there was a fire ... well, there’s only one way down.”
The second floor is empty except for the cable that leads to the third-floor transmitter for radio station WKCO.
“The third floor of the tower is less than halfway to its top,” said Lepley.
Wearing the required hard hats, Lepley and his visitors climb a narrow, circular iron staircase tucked into a nook. At the top of the stairs above the fourth floor, he unlocks an old padlock and goes through the door onto the open roof rimmed by tall parapets. The rolling landscape of Knox County spreads out below and all of Gambier is visible. The open ovals of the parapets frame Rosse Hall and the Church of the Holy Spirit nearby.
A look upward reveals stylized carvings of flowers and owls peering from a huge stone structure on the parapet wall.
“That tower is one piece,” said Lepley. “Can you imagine getting that up here and set in place in 1929?”
Atop the structure is a weather vane with a black metal cut-out figure of a student, clad in cap and a gown that appears to be blowing in the wind.
Two metal surveyors marks are placed in the west and south walls, reading “U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” One has a date of 1933; the other, 1938.
“Army engineers love high points like this because they can set up their instruments and shoot a long, long way. When they re-routed state route 229 around Gambier years ago, the state of Ohio used Peirce Tower as a reference point,” said Lepley.
The Church of the Holy Spirit — completed in 1871, although its cornerstone bears the date of 1869 when construction began — looks small from the top of Peirce Tower, but from outside its doors and inside its steeple, it is impressive.
The church and tower are also constructed of stone from Briar Hill Quarry, but the belfry is made of wood anchored with steel rods. Lepley unlocks a narrow door in the side of the church and leads the way up the narrow stone stairs. The passageway is so tight, visitors have to squeeze themselves between the stone sides.
The old clockworks, manufactured by E. Howard & Co., Boston, Mass., are painted green and decorated with gold flourishes and pinstripes. Although the clockworks are no longer in use, the cables in front of it still run through holes in the floor, attached to the bells. On the other end of the cables were weights that operated both bells and clock so the bells would strike the hour at the proper time.
The chimes — an instrument that looks like a rustic, simplified organ, made by Meneely & Kimberly of Troy, N.Y. — is set in one tower room. Depressing one of the levers rings one of the bells; two or more play chords. Every Friday afternoon, when the school week is over, students belonging to the Kenyon College Pealers climb the tower and make music for all of Gambier to hear. The words and music to old college tunes are taped to the walls.
A climb up a short wooden ladder to the top of the tower, but below the steeple, reveals the nine bells crowded into a small, dusty chamber with criss-crossing beams and cables. The bells are operated by an electric bell ringer installed by Lepley a few years ago. They are struck with hammers instead of clappers, operated by electric current. Lepley and visitors plug their ears and stand next to the bells as they ring “Winchester Chimes.”
The inside of the steeple is inaccessible, except to the occasional church mouse that can scamper up the wood to the very top.
The Knox County On High series will continue on Monday, Jan. 14, with an exploration of Friendship Church and Cemetery in Liberty Township, near the highest point in the county.
