The Pentacrest design is a copy of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. But Calvin Hall, the oldest UI-built building on campus (1885), stood in the way of that vision as it was where Macbride Hall exists today. So, in 1905, Calvin was lifted and pulled across Jefferson Street (and turned 90 degrees) to its current location. Horses and mules pulled it two feet a day, and the university continued to have classes in the building.

As "The Writing University,” I'd be remiss not to mention the historic drama, The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson, which tells the exciting true story of the 1893 World' Fair in Chicago.

The name Pentacrest came about in 1929 when The Daily Iowan conducted a naming contest (at the time many referred to the collection of five centerpiece buildings as “The 5-Spot”). A dentistry student from Independence, Iowa, submitted the name “Pentacrest” (loosely translated as “five on a hill”), and it stuck! 

At the northeast corner of the Pentacrest, one tree includes a protective fence. This is one of only 13 “Anne Frank trees” in the U.S. The white horse chestnut tree that grew behind the home in which her family hid from the Nazis was a common subject in her diary. The tree gave her hope as it grew toward the sky despite the difficult conditions of the time. The original tree fell in a storm in 2010, but saplings were taken, and Iowa now hosts this important part of history. 

This story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Tippie Magazine.