The Coughlin Campanile at South Dakota State University has been a staple on campus since it was built in 1929.
Almost 100 years later, the tower is undergoing renovations school officials say will bring the bells back to life.
Jonathan Meendering is the director of planning and design at SDSU. He said this is not the Campanile’s first restorative effort.
“Back in the 90s, that was kind of the first major restoration of the building. Kind of the full structure, and they used swing scaffolds to get up to the stone. The stone top, and then work their way down to repoint all the masonry and stone. Then probably a year-and-a-half ago, two years ago we started noticing some deterioration up at the top of the limestone cap and then some of the masonry around the windows,” said Meendering.
Meendering said the Campanile is one of eight structures on campus listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“The list of National Historic Places doesn’t require any type of maintenance, it’s more of a choice that the university has made to really reinvest in our historic buildings and structures. So, the budgeting doesn’t really come from them in that sense, and we don’t receive any funding related to that, but it is important to us obviously to care for our historic buildings. It adds to the character of campus, the overall esthetic, so we try to maintain those buildings the best we can,” said Meendering.
Renovations are expected to be complete by October.
