News
26 Years After Infamous Prank, Pumpkin Placed on McGraw Tower Again
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The pumpkin placed on top of McGraw Tower on Friday, Oct. 20 paid homage to a 1997 prank where a pumpkin sat on top of the clocktower for 158 days.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/mcgraw-tower/)
The pumpkin placed on top of McGraw Tower on Friday, Oct. 20 paid homage to a 1997 prank where a pumpkin sat on top of the clocktower for 158 days.
Cornell’s clocktower will remain under construction until November 2024, closing the 161-step tower to visitors and reducing the Cornell Chimes’ concert schedule.
Cornell Chimes is carrying on with chimesmasters continuing to climb McGraw Tower’s 161 steps to play classic and contemporary tunes for all of central campus.
The hat, as of Sunday, rests –– 173 feet and 161 steps up –– on the pinnacle of the tower. A representative from Cornell’s facilities phone line declined to comment to The Sun, and no student group or individual has yet claimed responsibility.
During the grueling 10-week tryout process for ‘chimesmaster,’ upwards of 40 candidates are winnowed down to an average of 2 finalists a year.
To commemorate the anniversary, Cornell staff member Oliver Habicht dusted off his 20-year-old floppy disk and retrieved his original footage of the pumpkin atop McGraw Tower.
Kelsey McBean, the son of Tompkins County legislator Leslyn McBean-Clairborne (D-1st Ward), was arrested Wednesday for attempting to steal a laptop from Olin Library, according to the Cornell University Police crime log. At 5:35 p.m. Tuesday, McBean sprinted from the library with the stolen laptop, entering McGraw clock tower. According to one witness, he was seen carrying a knife. Police removed McBean from the tower approximately 20 minutes later and he was referred to Ithaca City Court, according to the crime log. Legislator McBean-Clairborne is the director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.