The NDSU main gate has been re-opened to pedestrian traffic for the first time
in more than 30 years. During the ceremonies Oct. 5, President Joseph
A. Chapman said, “In terms of both literal and figurative, NDSU is opening
up to a great future. Our campus is opening the gates to progress.”
Located at the intersection of 12th Avenue North and University Drive, the refurbished
gate includes a 10 foot-wide, brick-paved sidewalk and a newly landscaped area.
The work used plans drawn up by architecture and landscape architecture students,
through the coordination with Physical Plant.
Student body president Jonas Peterson led the ceremonial proceedings.
“The reopening of the gate allows us to embrace our past, celebrate our
future and mark the progress we have made as an institution,” Peterson
said. “The opening of the gate marks a period of growth in the history
of NDSU and is symbolic of our progressive university, one that is centered
on the task of providing a world-class education for each of our students.”
The gate’s history dates back to September 1912. At the time, President
John H. Worst led a groundbreaking ceremony for a brick, sandstone and granite
gateway. The original plan called for four pillars connected by panel
work and an ornamental seal, back by artistic grillwork.
In November 1912, the entrance was completed at the cost of about $2,000.
The fund drive was spearheaded by chemistry student Mark Heller, who was later
killed in action during World War I.
Then, about 1914, Haile Chisholm, the university’s well-known blacksmith
and instructor of metal works, forged the wrought iron gate. Also noted
for his Roosevelt Memorial Gate in Bismarck, Chisholm worked at NDSU until he
was 85 years old and received an honorary degree form the university as a “Master
of Artisans.”
For several decades, visitors passed through the gate on a roadway that ran
from the corner to the front steps of Old Main. It served as the main
entrance to the campus until 1950, when the road was removed and replaced with
a pedestrian path and grassy mall.
The gate was damaged during the 1957 tornado that struck the north side of Fargo.
In 1969, the current decorative gate, with its entryway welded shut, was installed.
This article was taken from the October 10, 2001 issue of "It's Happening At State"