Cornell University McGraw Tower
— — the tower that rings the day open and shut.
Not only on a wall.
“McGraw Tower stands 173 feet above the Arts Quad at Cornell University, in the middle of the campus that Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White built on the hill above Cayuga Lake. The tower's clock has kept time since 1891, and its bells, the Cornell Chimes, are still rung by hand three times a day during the academic year by a small group of student chimesmasters who climb the 161 steps to play. The original collection has grown from nine bells to twenty-one. Below the tower, Libe Slope falls away west toward Lake Cayuga, the long Finger Lake whose far shore you can see from the steps of Uris Library. from the studio
Cornell University McGraw Tower, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
McGraw Tower rises from the northeast corner of Uris Library on Cornell University's Arts Quad in Ithaca, New York. Built in 1891 as part of the library originally named for benefactor Henry W. Sage, the tower is 173 feet tall and houses the Cornell Chimes. The architect was William Henry Miller, an early Cornell graduate. The tower takes its name from John McGraw, a Cornell trustee whose family endowed McGraw Hall next door. Ithaca sits at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region; the Cornell campus occupies the hill east of the lake, about 250 miles northwest of New York City.
The Cornell Chimes have been played since the university opened in October 1868, when nine bells rang the inaugural concert. The current set numbers twenty-one bells, the largest a four-and-a-half ton tenor. Concerts are played three times daily during the academic year, around 7:45 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m., by student chimesmasters chosen each spring through a public competition. The opening alma mater is the Jennie McGraw Rag, named for the daughter of John McGraw. The tower also figures in commencement weekend each May and in the climbing of Libe Slope on Slope Day.
The tower is open to the public for free climbing tours during many of the daily chimes concerts in the academic year; visitors meet at the base of the tower about ten minutes before the concert and climb the 161 steps with a chimesmaster. Cornell's campus is freely walkable. Ithaca is reached by State Route 13 from Binghamton or by Route 79 from Syracuse, both about an hour's drive; the closest commercial airport is Ithaca Tompkins, a fifteen-minute drive north. Uris Library's reading room beneath the tower remains a working library and is generally accessible during posted student hours.