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Gate Posts
Two brownstone gate posts, which originated from the old campus, are located on Vernon Street marking the entrance to a pathway across next to the English Department building (formerly the President's house). They are engraved with “TC” for Trinity College.
Local painter Charles R. Loomis captured the gate posts in an 1876 sketch, in which the posts have iron gates hanging on them. According to a 1932 Tripod article, the sketch was prominently displayed in President Ogilby's office.
At the old campus, the gates stood opposite the intersection of Rifle Avenue (now Capitol Ave) and Washington Street, marking the main entrance of the College. An 1866 map from the Trinity Catalogue shows this location. In the Loomis sketch, the back of the Brownell statue is also visible, confirming the location as opening to the back of the old campus buildings.
The gates 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. Sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s, John James McCook Jr., Class of 1863 and Professor of Modern Languages, found the iron gates in the Taylor and Fenn ironworkers yard, and Walter S. Schutz, Class of 1894, found the brownstone gate posts which had been separated from the gates.
Schutz had the gate posts installed at Vernon Street and Broad Street, marking the East entrance to the College. However, the road was too wide to hang the iron gates, so they were put into storage in Northam Towers.
A 1918 Tripod article details that the gates “closed forever” in 1897, and that they were currently in the basement of Jarvis Hall.
In 1932, the gates were restored and placed at their current location. During this project, a road leading to Alumni Hall from Vernon street was eliminated and a flagstone walk 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.”
Today, the stone posts remain on Vernon Street. However, the iron gates have been removed and their whereabouts are unknown.