The Iowa Stater
February 2002
26 steps
They'd been walked all over by generations of footwear -- high buttons, spectators, brogues, penny loafers, wingtips, saddle shoes, sneakers, go-go boots, waffle stompers, platforms, clogs, jellies, cross trainers -- and it showed.The 26 limestone steps that provided a grand entrance to Beardshear Hall since its beginning 95 years ago had become cracked, chipped and bowed. There was no saving the old steps and so, last summer, they were removed.
With them went a bit of Iowa State history. For nearly a century, the steps have served the university in many roles -- regal setting for the thrones of Veishea royalty (and on one Halloween, a throne of a different sort), bus stop for backpack-laden riders of the Orange and Brown routes, magnet for sign-toting rebels with causes.
The Beardshear steps were a place to celebrate. For decades, the campus community has huddled 'round the steps on wintry evenings for the annual rite of lighting the holiday tree.
Perhaps the most jubilant celebration on the steps occurred on Nov. 11, 1918, shortly after newspapers blaring the headline "PEACE" arrived on campus. Some 500 women students massed on the steps to sing patriotic songs. Soon 2,000 male students (members of the Student Army Training Corps) marched by. The women joined them for a triumphant procession around campus and returned to the steps for speeches, marking the end of World War I.
The Beardshear steps also were center stage for ISU's annual spring celebration, Veishea. The crowning of the Queen of Queens spanned decades before Veishea monarchy fell victim to changing times. Since the mid '60s, the steps have served as the starting line for the men of Pearson House, who run a Veishea invite for the governor to the Capitol in Des Moines.
Veishea also has lured high-profile speakers to the steps of Beardshear. Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille spoke there in 1952. Alumnus Thomas Sutherland, who was held hostage in Lebanon for six years, celebrated his release on the steps in 1992.
Demonstrators always found the Beardshear steps a likely spot to be seen and heard. Over the years, a variety of activists brought their convictions and handwritten signs to the steps to protest activities, ranging from the global (the Vietnam War and bombing of Iraq) to the local (naming a building for Carrie Chapman Catt and a proposal to open a McDonald's in the Hub). One campus activist, rebellious '60s student body president Don Smith, became a target of a protest himself when he was hung in effigy from a pillar atop the steps.
One of the more curious displays on the Beardshear steps appeared early Halloween morning in 1985.
A ceramic toilet perched on the steps with the sign: "Here's your chance, seniors. Go for it." Campus workers went for it instead, dispatching the toilet before most students (but not an Iowa State Daily reporter) had seen it.
Sensitive to the sentimental value of the old steps, ISU planners have taken pains to replicate them. The number, tread, landings and profile of the new steps match the old, said Steve Prater, project manager for the Beardshear remodeling.
A new addition to the steps are two sets of handrails, required by current construction codes and common sense, Prater noted. The sea of steps with nary a handhold in sight apparently worried more than one stair climber, including former ISU President W. Robert Parks, a 21-year inhabitant of Beardshear Hall. Parks confided that he usually descended Beardshear's indoor, handrailed stairs rather than tackle the outdoor entry. "I was afraid of those steps," he said.
While the new steps appear to be made of the same stuff as the old, they're actually created from cast stone, tinted the color of the old steps' limestone, Prater said. Cast stone is a finely particled concrete and should hold up considerably longer than the old limestone's 95 years. How long? "The ancient Romans used basic concrete," Prater said, "and some of their structures are still hanging in there."
-- Diana Pounds
University Relations
 Former ISU President W. Robert Parks used to avoid the front steps of Beardshear Hall, but with new handrails, he's now ready to tackle the outdoor entry. Photo by Bob Elbert. |