Editor's note: This story from the Brookings Register's June 6, 1929, edition was compiled by Tom Thaden of the Brookings Historic Preservation Commission.

What is expected to be the most striking structure in South Dakota, the State College campanile, is pictured here as it will appear upon its completion next fall.

The only feature of the night view lacking is the lights of yellow and blue, State College colors, which will be interspersed with the white light illuminating the Bedford stone chimes chamber and the balconies at the top.

As part of the evening commencement program at State College on June 10, the cornerstone will be laid with the donor, Charles Coughlin, an alumnus of the college, present and officiating at the cornerstone ceremony. Coughlin received his degree in electrical engineering 20 years ago and is now vice president, treasurer, and general manager of the Briggs-Stratton company in Milwaukee, a well-known manufacturing concern.

An 8,000,000 candle-power beacon light will revolve at the top of the campanile’s colorful light-flooded dome, 165 feet above the ground at the rate of six revolutions per minute, throwing out a beam of light visible at night to aviators 100 miles away at an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet. The tower itself can be seen more than 20 miles away in daytime.

The 37-foot Bedford stone chamber immediately below the beacon light will house a set of electrically operated chimes to call students to their classes, play concerts, and sound the hours with the famous Westminster peals. An automatic player will be installed in a small room at the base of the tower, supplied with more than 100 musical selections on rolls similar to those for player pianos, and set to provide chimes concerts each day. Special music can also be played on the chimes at a keyboard much like that of a piano. The chimes will play practically all musical compositions, including the “Star Spangled Banner,” national anthem, and the “Yellow and Blue,” State College song.

The 24-foot Bedford stone base of the tower will be flooded at night with a white light. It will contain four artistic entrances with the inscriptions above them giving the highlights of the history of South Dakota and State College. The inscriptions will be chiseled in Bedford stone as follows:

“Louisiana Territory Purchased April 30, 1803,” “Land Grant Colleges Established July 2, 1862,” “South Dakota State College Founded February 21, 1881,” and “State of South Dakota Admitted February 22, 1889.”

The tower proper, above the Bedford base and below the white dome, will be built of red brick. The general architecture of the campanile will match the Lincoln Memorial Library and the Coolidge Sylvan theatre nearby on campus.

The chimes tower was designed by Perkins & McWayne, Sioux Falls architects. The contractors are the Wold-Mark Construction Company of Brookings and the Aberdeen Engineering Company of Aberdeen.

Construction is being supervised by Dr. Charles W. Pugsley, president of State College for the past six years and previously connected with the college of agriculture, University of Nebraska, for ten years. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and was a resident of Lincoln, NE, for 15 years. At the time he accepted the presidency of State College he was assistant secretary of agriculture at Washington, D.C.

President Pugsley points out that the campanile is entirely a South Dakota product, as it was given by a South Dakota graduate, planned by a South Dakota firm, and is being constructed by South Dakota companies.