Quirks about Kirkland Hall

Collected by Beth Labick (Beth.A.Labick@vanderbilt.edu)

Summary: The first part of the tale concerns the unfinished construction of
the belltowers atop Kirkland Hall. The asymmetrical look to the
appearance of the one tower has provided the student body with many
opinions as to why this event occured. The second part of the tale,
that is related to the first, deals with if the unfinished construction
caused the tower to have a fake bell ring every day.

Text: Kirkland Hall was originally planned to have two bell towers,
according to the blueprint plans. Also, if you look at it, the
building looks all lopsided, and you can kind of tell that
something else was supposed to be there. During the construction,
however, the school just ran out of money, and they never bothered to
finish it later on. But, that's why Kirkland looks so weird. And, by
the way, they couldn't afford to put real bells in the tower they have.
From what I've heard, the administration has a microphone up there, and
they had to record the sounds of bells chiming...They play the same two
chimes over and over again, all day long. Of course, the school will
never admit to that. They've already put out statements that their
bells are real.

Notes: I first heard the story of the construction problems at Kirkland
from the Summer Orientation Guide I had before I actually began
studying here. It was part of the tour, but I remember that the reason
was all Vanderbilt's money went towards a war effort, and therefore,
the second tower was never added. Many other people also have heard
this part of the tale, and everyone seems to know about the original
blueprints. The second part, concerning the bells, however, fewer
people have heard about. Most of the people who have heard this, heard
it first from my informant.

CONTEXT
a. The first part of the tale concerns the unfinished construction of
the belltowers atop Kirkland Hall. The asymmetrical look to the
appearance of the one tower has provided the student body with many
opinions as to why this event occured. The second part of the tale,
that is related to the first, deals with if the unfinished construction
caused the tower to have a fake bell ring every day.

b. The main tale type is an explanatory tale to show why Kirkland
looks so strange in design. The second appears to be a humorous
offshoot of the first.

c. The first tale has many varying reasons why the building remained
"unfinished" out of the entire campus. All the reasons connect in some
way, however, which may prove the validity of the main idea of the
tale. The second part is a little more obscure, and not as widely
spread.

d. The first tale was heard at Freshman Orientation, and the second
part came up more recently.

e. Informant is a good friend at Vanderbilt.

f. The tale was explained during the cursory tour given to the
freshman and their parents.

g. Age: 20
Sex: Female
Bithplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ethnicity: Ties to area around Poland
Languages Spoken: English only
Religion: Lutheran
Year: Senior
Extracurricular Jobs: Volunteer work at Crisis Center
Date Collected: 14 September, 1998