In the first of a series of posts we’ll call Unseen ACU, we thought you’d enjoy a look at a campus landmark that even the most determined, mischievous social club prankster has never seen.
At 150 feet tall, the Tower of Light, well, towers above the campus below. It was built in 1989, along with what would become known as the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building, Beauchamp Amphitheatre and Chapel on the Hill. Its face is a series of limestone slabs covering a steel infracture. At the top, carillion bells strike Westminster chimes that signal every 15 minutes and the top of the hour, and play music to call students to daily Chapel.
The Tower of Light was made possible through a gift by Bob and Cheryl Gowens.
This photo from summer 1988 also is interesting in that it shows “old” Judge Ely Boulvard fronting Sikes Hall and the Mabee Business Building. University trustees received permission from the city/state to move the busy street to the east – at ACU’s expense – on land the university already owned, helping create a new front door to the campus accessible by Teague Boulevard off of the “new” and wider Judge Ely Boulevard.
The construction project to house the College of Biblical Studies and the related re-routing of local traffic represented the most visible physical growth for ACU since the Design for Development campaign (1962-82) built 15 new buildings (including Brown Library, Moody Colisem, Don H. Morris Center, Smith-Adams Hall, Sikes Hall, Sherrod Residential Park and McGlothlin Campus Center) and renovated 10 others.