May 10th Clemson Historic Picture Of The Day

Tillman Hall…Spanning 90 Years

(Photos Uploaded By Alan Cutts)

Today’s photos are of Tillman Hall, which seems to be a very popular place to take a picture since the beginning of Clemson College. The above photo is from the 1920’s showing the outside of Tillman Hall’s entrance. Below that is a picture I took this past weekend from almost the same spot.

Notice the stone work has not changed from the 1920’s compared to today. The only major differences in the two pictures are the handrails coming down the steps (in the recent picture), and the trees that have been removed and replaced with bushes.

Many times throughout the years, photographers take pictures inside the doorway of Tillman Hall, with the arches in the photo and looking out of Tillman. Here is a picture from the 1940’s facing out of Tillman (notice there is no Thomas Green Clemson statue).

You can see that some type of greenery is encased around the arch in the picture. This may be kudzoo. You can also see a large tree almost in the center of the picture. This tree is not present in the photo from the 1970’s a little further down in this blog.

Back to the Thomas Green Clemson statue: According to “The Tiger”, the March 23, 1941 ceremony on the Thomas Clemson statue was lead by South Carolina Governor Burnet R. Maybank, who dedicated the statue at "an impressive unveiling ceremony Saturday afternoon at three-thirty o'clock."

Judge Strom Thurmond introduced the speaker and President Robert F. Poole received the monument for the college as a gift from Blue Key. A "guard of honor" of eight cadets unveiled the statue and the ceremony ended with the singing of the Alma Mater.

The statue was originally set to be unveiled in November of 1940 but they could not agree on where to place it. The original site was in front if the Library (now Sikes). A committee of faculty with a sub-committee of appointed architects met with a committee of students to decide the location.

Here is a photo from the same angle taken in the late 1970s, which now includes the Thomas Clemson statue. The tree in the 1940’s picture is now gone, but there is a tree growing in the center of the circle in the 1970’s picture. This tree blocks the view of Thomas Green Clemson’s statue.

Today the circle in front of Tillman is called Gantt Circle and has undergone a major renovation. The student government and the Air Force ROTC were co-sponsors for the renovation of Gantt Circle to improve its appearance. Here is a picture looking out from Tillman Hall taken this past weekend.

(Note: If you have old pictures dating before 1990 that are Clemson related and you would like to share them, send them to me in an email with as much information about the picture as you can give and I will use it for a future “Clemson Historic Picture Of The Day”).

Scott Rhymer can be reached at Scottrhymer.tps@gmail.com