Fence

The Fence around the campus was erected on 1903 after the building of the Van Wickle Gates. The sections of the fence are 21 feet long and are separated by brick and stone piers. On each section of fence are the numerals of the class which contributed to the cost of that section, the cost at that time being $350. The numerals were originally in gold leaf, but the contrast with the black iron fence was deemed too great. The 1786 section was not a gift of the long-departed class, but was given in honor of the class of Nicholas Brown. The gates in the fence are the 1872 Gate on Prospect Street, the Robinson Gate on Waterman Street, a gift of the Class of 1884 dedicated at Commencement 1904 in memory of President Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, and the Class of 1887 Gate on Waterman Street. The gates on George Street are the John Nicholas Brown Gate, given in 1903 by his widow, the William Goddard Memorial Gate, given by Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin in 1911 in memory of her father, Chancellor William Goddard 1846, and the Psi Upsilon gate, dedicated by the fraternity at the time of its centennial in 1940. The old gates which had stood at the head of College Street were removed to Thayer Street and were in time displaced once more by the Soldiers Memorial Gate. Not all the sections were “sold” when the fence was new. The Class of 1923 bought its section in 1956, paying $2750, the estimated cost of adding a new section at that time. The Classes of 1907, 1924, 1929, and 1934 had their numerals added in 1964, and the Class of 1932 numerals were added to 1992.