10 Florida Tech Campus Curiosities

There's the Florida Tech you know -- our beautiful botanical garden, our majestic Olin quad. But look a little closer, and you discover the subtle, charming, mysterious and strange elements of campus that often go unnoticed. 1. Melbourne Mammoth Evans Library The remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered on campus in the 1920s. Part of the gigantic creature’s 10,000 year-old molar is on display in Evans Library. 2. Watcher in the Wood Evans Library This happy little face just showed up one day and is now just part of what makes Florida Tech a fun place to live and learn. Find him outside the library facing the covered bridge. 3. Stairway to Nowhere Residence Quad The quad dorms were originally constructed in the late ‘60s with open-air patios. Eventually the patios were enclosed, so now only roofed stairways remain. 4. Old School House Botanical Garden Melbourne’s oldest surviving schoolhouse was built in 1883 by John Goode at his house on the river and was moved to Florida Tech in 1970. Today, it rests in the Botanical Gardens as a reminder of days past when students sat on benches, wrote on slates and drank from the well nearby. 5. Door Without a Landing Residence Quad This door provide access to mechanical space under the stairs at Grissom. It is rarely used and is for service personnel only. Hence, no landing. 6. Hobbit Door Near Tennis Courts Bilbo Baggins might not have had a problem accessing the racquetball court through this door, but it was taken out of service in 2000 to accommodate non-Shire ballplayers. 7. Eye of the Dragon Keuper Building During the 1970s and 1980s, Florida Tech was a leader in granting graduate fellowships to Chinese students. Taiwanese officials presented the Chao Tsu-Yu Chinese clock, which is covered in intricate embellishments, to the university as a gift in 1981. 8. Hedgecock Gym Floor Clemente Center The old gym floor was headed to the trash when athletics director Bill Jurgens said, “Hey, wait a minute!” Now the panther faced floorboards adorn a prominent wall in the athletics office on the second floor of the Clemente Center. 9. Atomic Toilet East of Crawford Building Florida Tech’s first research director, David Woodbridge, won national attention in 1970 when Time Magazine published an article describing his efforts to use radioactive cobalt-60 to purify water. The underground facility he used to conduct experiments lies beneath a small structure near Crawford Tower that resembles an outdoor restroom. We call it the Atomic Toilet. 10. Tiki Head Botanical Garden No real story here, just a random Tiki head hanging around in the Botanical Gardens. He’s big and bald and appreciates when students sprinkle Spanish moss on his dome.

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