The Spirit Rock is a recent tradition, introduced by Matt D'oyly (class of 2004) in the early 2000s. It sits on the former site of Cochran Hall, a ladies dormitory that served the university from 1907 to 1976. All of Otterbein's sororities were founded in this building. In the 1970s it housed the university's first Computer Center. On April 6, 1976, a fire broke out in the main lounge. There were no fatalities, however several students were treated for smoke inhalation. The fire damaged the interior beyond repair, and the building was razed soon after.
The silver dome on top of the Science Center is the Weitkamp Planetarium, built in 1955. The structure originally consisted of two aluminium domes, one the planetarium and the other the observatory. They were funded by Dr. Alfred H. Weitkamp (class of 1904), and they were designed and built by Otterbein's Business Manager, Sanders Frye. Frye was an engineer whose claim to fame was designing the pin-setting device used in bowling alleys. Frye was not happy with the outside bids for building the domes, so he assembled a team of four students to work on the project. They designed, manufactured, and constructed the domes in the summer of 1955, and the facility was opened for use later that year.
In 1971 a fire broke out in one of the classrooms that connected the two domes. No one was injured, but the observatory dome was completely destroyed. A much simpler structure was built to replace it in the 1980s, with an observation deck added in place of the classrooms. Programs continue to be offered to both students and the general public. For more information visit the Physics Department website: http://www.otterbein.edu/public/Academics/Departments/Physics/Facilities.aspx
Otterbein University was proud of the students, faculty, and alumni who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1916 a group of Otterbein veterans came to campus to dedicate a small monument on the southeast lawn of Towers Hall in commemoration of these valiant men.
In the spring of 1922 Otterbein was visited by Vice-President Calvin Coolidge. His final act before leaving campus was to lay a wreath on the monument.
For more information see the LibGuide "Otterbein Civil War Soldiers Biography": http://otterbein.libguides.com/c.php?g=430142&p=2932738
In 2009 the Presidents Gallery was opened on the second floor of Towers Hall. This was created as part of the retirement celebration of the university's 19th president, C. Brent DeVore. It was decided at the time that the sitting president would not be added to the gallery until the end of their term, so as of this writing Dr. Kathy Krendl has not yet been added.
The curved wall on which the presidential portraits are hung is the only remainder of the chapel that once took up most of the west side of Towers Hall. Daily chapel was a requirement at Otterbein for many years, and the Church of the Master congregation also met in that space from 1871 until 1916. The stained glass windows that flank the portraits once hung on the opposite wall of the chapel, now a part of the Computer Science and History Department offices.
In 2011 representatives of the class of 1956 worked with the Otterbein University Archives to create a display featuring a pictorial overview of the school's history. These are located on the third floor of Roush Hall, outside of the President's Office.
In the summer of 2016 the Battelle Fine Arts Center received some exterior repairs, and in the midst of this work the original panels over the corner doors were uncovered. This revealed the words "Health," "Virility," "Symmetry," and "Sports." These names go back to 1929, when the building was opened as the Alumni Gymnasium. The Alumni Gym was the home of men's physical education at Otterbein from 1929 until 1975, when the Rike Center was opened. Through the generosity of the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, the old gym was renovated and turned into a Music and Arts building. The corner doorway panels remained out of sight and mind until 2016 when it was decided to leave them intact and visible to campus.
In the days before central heating, Towers Hall was heated in the winter by coal-burning stoves. In order to get the coal from the basement to the upper floors a set of small elevators ran up and down the center of the building. After central heating the elevators were removed, but the shafts remained intact. According to Otterbein historian Dr. Harold Hancock, on one memorable occasion the students pulled all of the benches out of the old chapel and hid them in the elevator shafts. Today the only evidence of these elevators are the two bricked-up openings in the Towers Hall basement.
Benjamin Russell Hanby (class of 1858) was one of Otterbein's first graduates, and the composer of the well-known anti-slavery song "Darling Nelly Gray," though today we know him best as the composer of the children's Christmas classic "Up On the Housetop." His father, William, was one of the founders of Otterbein University, and Ben worked for the university after graduation as a "Financial Agent," in other words a professional fund-raiser. He later worked as a teacher, a minister, and finally ended up in Chicago working for Root and Cady music publishers. Sadly, Ben contracted tuberculosis and died in 1867.
There are several Hanby sites located on or near campus, including the memorial plaque located inside Clippinger Hall, the Ohio Historical Marker located on Grove Street next to the Cowan Hall parking lot, the Hanby family plot in the Otterbein Cememtary, and the Hanby House Museum, located on Main Street across from the Science Center. For more information visit the Hanby House website, http://www.hanbyhouse.org/index.html
This article from the March 1965 Towers Magazine explains the reason we have a small stone pillar on the southeast corner of the Science Center. Unfortunately the original explanatory plaque no longer adorns the monolith, and subsequent attempts to label the stone have failed.
