After 70 years of guarding the entrance to N.C. State’s main campus, University administrators are finally planning on giving the Memorial Bell Tower a face-lift.

Decades of water damage have taken their toll on the Bell Tower. Last year, University officials commissioned a detailed study to find out the extent of the deterioration and the estimated cost of not only repairing the tower, but implementing preventative mechanisms to stem future damage.

“The initial study said it would cost upwards of a million dollars to take care of all the problems that were in the Bell Tower,” said Sammy Sams of the University Architect’s office. “There was about $500,000 allocated for that initially, but we just got some additional money added to that, so we’re actually very close to what the estimate said.”

The Bell Tower was originally commissioned in 1920 as a memorial to the 34 alumni killed in World War I. Workers laid the cornerstone in 1921, but due to intermittent funding, progress on the tower was slow.

In 1929, the Great Depression intervened and completely halted work untilthe mid-1930s. To this day, observers can easily see just how high the tower was when construction stopped, thanks to a clearly visible difference in the color of the granite slightly less than midway up the tower shaft.

In 1937, the 115-foot tower was finally completed. The only access to the roof was, and remains, a ladder attached to the inside wall of the tower shaft. Today, the ladder is deteriorating, and accessing the roof has consequently become a hazardous undertaking.

“Some of the engineers have been up there, and they say it’s a little bit hair-raising to try and make the climb,” Sams said.

The clock was added in 1938, the floodlights in 1939 and the carillonic bells in 1947.

Finally, in 1949, workers completed the Shrine Room, the final phase of the Bell Tower’s evolution. Housed within the base of the tower, the Shrine Room has suffered considerable rain damage.

“The windows that you see at the top are actually open, and most people don’t realize that. So, basically, the inside of the tower is open to the outside,” Sams said.

“That’s good in that it allows air to circulate, but it’s bad in that a driving rain will force a lot more water inside the tower. Then it creeps down the inside of the wall and gets down into the Shrine Room, and that’s where you can see a lot of damage because it’s actually gone in there and caused some of the marble down in there to spall.”

In other words, the wall surfaces of the Shrine Room literally crumble to the touch.

The entrance to the Shrine Room on the east side of the tower usually remains closed. An inscription on the door reads, “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,” taken from the book of Isaiah.

Once inside, visitors find themselves in a somber enclosure with white marble walls, a black marble floor and a domed ceiling. Light seems to emanate from the dome itself, bathing the Shrine Room in a gentle luminance that contributes to an overall atmosphere of reverence.

On the opposite wall hangs a large plaque engraved with the names of all34 fallen alumni, along with one more-“George E. Jefferson”-a man whonever attended NC State and who never served, let alone died, in World WarI.

“George E. Jefferson” actually read “George L. Jeffers” when the plaque was first engraved. George L. Jeffers was an alumnus who was erroneously reported killed in action during the war. The report was later retracted, but somehow, Jeffers’ name was still included among the dead 30 years later.

Unable to pay for a brand new plaque, officials decided instead to change the name to “George E. Jefferson,” a fictional name that could symbolize unidentified fallen soldiers.

Another major challenge facing engineers involves repairs to the plinth level of the Bell Tower.

The plinth is the raised platform upon which the tower sits. The surface of the plinth is visibly uneven, with sunken, buckled and separating areas. Around the edges, some of the capstones are literally being pushed outward in places and overhang the rest of the wall, thanks, once again, to the effects of water.

On Oct. 29, a team of architects, engineers and stone workers removed one of the capstones on the south edge of the plinth in order to determine exactly how the plinth was constructed.

“These steps are pretty well anchored, and they’re staying stationary, but you can see this capstone is overhanging by, like, an inch and a half,” Robert Stevenson, an architectural consultant for the Bell Tower restoration plan, said. “Well, originally, it was flush with the rest of the all. That’s how much this whole thing has been forced outward.”

Designers originally built a retaining wall for the plinth, filled the enclosure with soil, and then covered the soil with a concrete sub-slab.

Over time, the soil settled, leaving a gap that allowed the concrete slab to sink and crumble. And as the soil absorbed water, it expanded, pushing on the capstones around the edge of the plinth and forcing them outward.

“It looks like the soil is actually clay, which is not good, because clay expands and contracts when it gets wet,” Stevenson said. “It was a very poor material choice for this condition. It’s what’s causing all this movement. Sand or gravel would have been better, something that doesn’t move when it gets wet.”

According to Stevenson, the repair assessment phase will end in February. At that time, investigators will have enough information to make final, prioritized recommendations and provide cost estimates to University officials.

“At that point, they’ll decide which things they can accomplish with their budget, we’ll complete the designs on those portions, and then they’ll bid it to contractors.”

Sams, himself an alumnus, admitted that as a student he never knew the story of the Bell Tower.

“I was down here in the 60s. I used to walk by that thing every single day. When I went into it a couple months ago, it was actually the first time I’d ever been inside the Bell Tower,” Sams said.

“My guess is probably that the majority of people that come through the University have never set foot in it either, and probably don’t even know what’s in it.”