The Brickyard

The school colors of red and white at North Carolina State University make their appearances across the school’s 2,099-acre property, but nowhere is it more prominent than the Brickyard. The space known as the Brickyard lies in the heart of NC State’s North Campus and to this day the plaza serves as a popular site for socializing and exchange among students, staff and visitors. This popular campus landmark has seen its fair share of protests, memorials and even preaching since its conception in the mid-1960s.  

In 1966, officials at North Carolina State University made the decision to pave the muddy expanse of ground between the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Center and Harrelson Hall that had previously been covered with wooden planks. Construction of a walkway made of bricks started in 1966 when university officials hired landscape architect Richard C. Bell, a graduate of the North Carolina State University College of Design. Bell’s original design called for the area to be covered in granite stones; however, bricks proved to be cheaper as they were made in-state, more could be produced and on top of that they were free. The university worked with a state-granted budget of $160,000 to create the paved walkway and Bell covered the area with 588,060 red and white bricks that had been donated by the North Carolina Bricklayers Association. Bell arranged the bricks in a pattern that reminded him of the Piazza San Marco, a plaza in Venice that Bell had studied early in his professional career. After two years of construction, the bricks were laid and the design was completed in 1968. Chancellor John Caldwell officially dedicated the walkway as “University Plaza” in March 1968 on the university’s 81st Founders Day; however, students at North Carolina State University began calling it “The Brickyard” due to the vast number of red and white bricks covering the area.

After the Brickyard’s creation, it quickly grew to be a place where students and staff met to socialize and discuss politics. One of the most politically charged events in the plaza was in the early 1970s when the Brickyard served as a starting point for a student-led protest of the Vietnam War. In May 1970, Cathy Sterling, the first female Student Body President, led a protest that started at the Brickyard and ended at the North Carolina Capitol building. Approximately 6,000 students from NC State and surrounding universities in the triangle attended to protest the Vietnam War and the murder of the students at the protest on Kent State University’s campus. Before the 1970 protest there had been other protests on campus but they mostly dealt with campus-wide issues, not national and international political crises. The May 1970 protest that began in the Brickyard at NC State is one in a series of nationwide campus protests of the Vietnam War that took place in this decade.

To this day, the Brickyard remains a space where students can choose to celebrate or in some cases, mourn. In February 2015, North Carolina State University hosted a vigil in the Brickyard to commemorate the lives of Deah Shaddy Barakat (NCSU Alumnus), Yusor Mohammad (NCSU Alumna) and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (NCSU Undergraduate Student). They were killed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Tuesday February 10, 2015 in what many believed to have been a hate crime. The Muslim Student Association (MSA) on NC State’s campus hosted the vigil entitled “A Night of Dua’a for Our Winners” and thousands gathered in the Brickyard to commemorate the victims. 

The Brickyard has hosted a variety of events over the years. Every year Shack-A-Thon is hosted in the Brickyard. During this event, different university colleges and university organizations construct a shack for their group to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, an international non-profit organization that helps build affordable and safe homes for people in need. The members of each organization help build and staff their shack during the entire week, rain or shine. Another annual event that takes place on the Brickyard is Agriculture Awareness Week (AAW). NC State was originally founded as an agricultural and mechanical school in the later nineteenth century, and this week makes sure that the university stays close to its roots. AAW has livestock and informational text throughout the Brickyard all week, along with people to answer questions about the College of Agriculture and Life Science at NC State. In August 2017, the College of Sciences at NC State hosted a solar eclipse viewing party on the Brickyard. The college held games on the Brickyard and even taught students how to create their own safe eclipse-viewing materials. Thousands of students, staff and members of the public showed up at the event to view the solar eclipse, it is thought to have been the largest gathering in the history of the Brickyard.

The red and white bricks that make up the Brickyard and other buildings on campus, serve as a symbol of North Carolina State University. Due to the vast number of bricks located in the Brickyard, approximately 600 bricks go missing every year due to students taking them. Many students take them as a souvenir of their time at NC State, mainly during their last year on campus. While the university does not condone the theft of the bricks, students may email gr-brick-crew@ncsu.edu to request a souvenir brick or they may collect a surplus brick that can be found in the Brickyard that is not a part of the paved walkway.

The creation of the Brickyard was to function as a paved walkway between buildings, but over time the plaza grew into a space where students could meet to discuss varying topics from goings-on in an international context to their weekend plans.  During its short lifespan on NC State’s campus, the Brickyard has seen many events take place. Ultimately, “University Plaza” is a physical place where the campus can unite to this day.

References

Original Sources References

 “About Habitat for Humanity of Wake County.” Habitat for Humanity Wake County. Accessed September 9, 2019. https://www.habitatwake.org/about.

Bjerkness, Isaac. “Brickyard celebrates half a century of events and memories.” The Technician, March 20, 2018. http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_4532b940-2c91-11e8-ae18-c78121a171d9.html.

Harrington, Jaylan. “Shack-A-Thon brings awareness to affordable housing accessibility in North Carolina.” The Technician, October 1, 2018. http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_2cba80da-c51d-11e8-891f-6765b43359dc.html.

North Carolina State University, Office of Public Affairs, News Services Records 1896-2007, UA014.011. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua014_011/summary.

North Carolina State University, University Archives Reference Collection, University Buildings, Sites, Landmarks Files 1888-2018, UA050.004, Box 8. Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua050_004/summary.

Pape, Carter. “The History of Campus Activism.” The Technician, March 28, 2017. http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_bb210f42-1420-11e7-88e6-e7ca771fd926.html.

Schaefer, Kevin and Russell Ash. “Hundreds gather at vigil in Brickyard.” The Technician. February 13, 2015. http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_c90a28e8-b3a9-11e4-8c52-a3e257836984.html.

Thomas, Alicia. “Farm animals in Brickyard attract students to learn more about CALS.” The Technician, March 20, 2018. http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_c2ac38ce-2c9b-11e8-9be9-6bee45b3824c.html.

Unknown. “The Brickyard.” The Brickyard | NC State University. Accessed September 5, 2019. https://www.ncsu.edu/spaces/brickyard/.

Unknown. “Protest.” NCSU Timelines. Accessed September 5, 2019. https://historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu/timelines/search?q=protest.

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Secondary Source References

Gilbert, Marc Jason. The Vietnam War on Campus: Other Voices, More Distant Drums. Westport: Praeger, 2001.

Heineman, Keith J. Campus Wars: The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era. Fredericksburg: New York University Press, 1994.