The North Carolina State University Memorial Tower, popularly known as the Belltower, stands 115 feet tall and is one of North Carolina State's main landmarks. Vance Sykes, class of 1907, and other alumni, formed the Memorial Tower Committee in the 1920s with the hope of erecting a monument to honor the thirty-four State College (later North Carolina State University) students and alumni killed in World War I. However, the Memorial Tower Committee, chaired by Professor C. L. Mann, did not experience the seamless trajectory of progress that they expected. The Committee struggled with debt during the decades preceding the Tower's completion, largely as a result of the Depression. Although the Works Progress Administration was brought in to aid in the completion of the tower, the project fell deeply into debt and the committee was threatened with legal action until the outstanding balance was paid. Due to these financial constraints, the Belltower has housed an electric speaker system rather than the planned 54-bell carillon.
The Memorial Tower is a landmark of North Carolina State University's campus and has become central to several school traditions, including the housing of class rings inside the Tower the night before graduation and the illumination of the Tower with red light on significant dates, including athletic victories of North Carolina State.
From the guide to the North Carolina State University, Committees, Memorial Tower Committee Records, 1919-1966, (Special Collections Research Center)
