Gate Posts
Two brownstone gate posts, which originated from the old campus, are located on Vernon Street marking the entrance to a pathway next to the English Department building (formerly the President's house). They are engraved with “TC” for Trinity College.
The posts originally stood “facing towards the north across the driveway which ran back of the old college buildings” 1) or “faced what is now known as Capitol Avenue, at the end of Washington Street.” 2) According to a 1932 Trinity Tripod article, “The gates are also shown on a photograph of the College building, taken from Washington Street.” Local painter Charles R. Loomis captured the gate posts in an 1876 sketch, which was prominently displayed in President Remsen Ogilby's office.
The gates and posts found their way back to campus by happenstance, as they were not intentionally preserved when the old campus was demolished during the 1878 move to Summit Street. There are differing accounts relaying the whereabouts and provenance of the gates and posts, but by all accounts the posts were restored to their current location by 1897 and the gates were taken on and off of the posts over the following decades, being stored either on campus or sent to metalworkers.
According to the 1932 Tripod article, John James McCook Jr., Class of 1863 and Professor of Modern Languages, found the iron gates in the Taylor and Fenn ironworkers yard 3) in the early 1900s, and Walter S. Schutz, Class of 1894, found the brownstone posts which had been separated from the gates. Schutz had the gate posts installed at Vernon Street on either side of the wide drive entering the College from Vernon Street at the President's House. The road was too broad to hang the iron gates, so they were put into storage “in the catacombs of Northam Towers.”
In 1897, the Trinity Ivy stated that the iron gates were “at Lincoln's foundry on Arch Street, Hartford,” and that the posts were at the Vernon Street entrance; 4) an accompanying sketch was noted to have been made “with the kind permission of Mr. Lincoln.” In 1918, the Tripod notes that “those fine old gates…are now in the basement of Jarvis Hall,” and that they “closed forever” in 1897. The language “closed forever,” in regard to the date, is unclear.
In 1932, the road leading to Alumni Hall from Vernon street was eliminated and a flagstone sidewalk installed “with the old stone gate posts brought into a position on either side of the walk” and “the original iron gates, after 55 years of rusting and resting in obscurity, were once more hung on their ancient hinges.” 5)
Today, the stone posts remain on Vernon Street. However, the iron gates have been removed and their whereabouts are unknown.