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Hey there,
looking for folks who have memories, good, bad, or indifferent about the round building of uh, renown… and thoughts about it being torn down… If you have any thoughts on any of that, can you contact me at: jprice8888(at)gmail.com
and I’ll explain what’s up.
thanks muchI was a student at State in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I had several calculus classes there. It always seemed to be a strange building. The thing about that building that I remember the most was one time I was in a calculus class and had to go to the bathroom. I got to the bathroom and found a stall. I was sitting down taking care of buisiness and then I could hear someone coming toward my stall. I looked up and a guy was peeping at me from the crack in the door. I yelled something at him and he took off running full speed out of the bathroom. Good times.
I was an undergrad in the late 80s and had several Math and German classes in that building. I don’t remember taking a dump in Harrelson, but I do remember it being confusing whenever I ran up the ramp and popped out into that circular hall not know which way to turn to get to my class.
Despite its valued usage as a temporary shield to the elements on rainy days, I have no love for that hideous monstrosity.
Among other classes, I took Invertebrate Zoology there, which at the time was taught by the meanest (and quite possibly homicidal) grandma-ma ever put on the planet. She was the only one who taught it (lab too), and she literally wrote the book, as they say. I opted for the once per week 3+ hour class to minimize the suffering, but since she was just as boring as she was mean, that was a huge mistake. Thanked God the day I finished that final, lemme tell ya.
I had calculus and econ classes in Harrelson in the mid 60s. My day was always made when I had an 8 o’clock class there. There was a professor who’ d come in about 8 in a suit and tie, tie very loose, collar unbuttoned, and shoes untied. He’d be reading a book. He’d come through the entry, proceed to the inner wall on the ramp and place his shoulder on the wall. He’d then begin his walk up the ramp reading. That inner wall had ashtrays mounted about every 50 ft or so. When he’d hit an ashtray he’d just sort of pirouette around it, put his shoulder back on the wall and keep walking. He never looked up. He never stopped reading. When someone mentions Harrelson that’s the vision that pops immediately to mind. Asthetically I never cared for the building, but no one ever solicited my opinion.
I’m one of those guys who used to skateboard down the ramp back in the 70’s and 80’s. That was loads of fun. We always had an escape plan and a meet-up spot. I could have sworn that we took some 8mm footage of that, but it has not surfaced. I do have some footage of skating under and around the Hall.
I completed one of my finest all-time final exams in that place, US History from Civil War to Present (at the time) 🙂
Had all of my calculus classes there…in my student days as a much younger, much more athletic sort I always took those very steep steps to the classroom. Hated the building, but a GREAT place to find an empty classroom in the evenings and nerd out during final exam time…
^ I learned about “state dependent learning” in a Psych class and applied that to the exam I mentioned above. I did all my studying in Harrelson in the same seat in the same room that the exam was held in. When I wrote the exam I could not get the info on paper fast enough, just looking around the room triggered study thoughts. Pretty cool.
I got to the bathroom and found a stall. I was sitting down taking care of buisiness and then I could hear someone coming toward my stall. I looked up and a guy was peeping at me from the crack in the door. I yelled something at him and he took off running full speed out of the bathroom. Good times.
^This times 1,000,000
My main memories from the Hall.
speaking of Harrelson…
What was the name of the French Professor Stack’s dog that sat in the corner of his classroom ??
Calculus (8 hrs)
French (6 hrs)
History (18 hrs)
Econ (21 hrs)
Business (30 hrs)… and I’m sure there were others…
… that’s 83 hrs of classes in Harrelson plus studying there at nights as it was just a short walk from Alexander…
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Wufpacker…..had to have been Bradbury. I had her for invert in 75….twice! And, she was my freakin advisor! She caught me giving answers to my roomie, a baseballer, on the final. Flunked him, gave me a C (had an A going in, this, my second time around) and then “advised” me to drop out of school and join the Marines. I opted to change advisors and majors! Ugly old cow (vertebrate, ironically).
Pack78….exactly….always an open classroom at night….great for exam cram time. 78 here as well….maybe ran into you (NOT in a stall!).
My favorite class from the ‘old days’ (mid 90s) was HI 341, History of Technology with Mulholland. He appreciate my zeal for that class because I smoked Camels then. He assumed that my smoking was an homage to the Egyptian pyramids. My final paper was on nuclear energy.
Just an interesting note, old man Mulholland told me that the reason each interior door (rooms on the inner circle) had a vent because those rooms weren’t properly ventilated and kids were falling out in the middle of class. I wonder if anyone considered a lab in oxygen deprivation.
I was in Harrelson on 9/11, actually in History of Technology 341 (can’t remember the professor now but he was good), my final semester. A classmate came in and said a plane had hit a Tower. I didn’t even own a cellphone yet and information still traveled slow, so none of us thought much of it and class went on as normal.
Crazy to think nowadays that I found out what had happened only because I turned on my radio while driving home after that class.
Interesting gammut. Cellphones in Harrelson? Ha…Dick Tracey wristwatch radio, maybe.
I know who scoped your exam, John Gault. ( Nope.Not me, peeps.)
Spanglish and US History were memorable in that odd, odd place. Philosphy…not so much. I could never get the prof to proof out…”Belief is its own reality.” Guess he had his own belief…D.
I’ve hated nothing in life so much as I hated 8 AM calc classes in that lightless hell hole.
Having said that, I loved the weirdness of it and will be sad to see it go.
God, how I hated those fucking stairs at 8 am. Still half-asleep, and they were JUST off enough (height wise) to ensure I tripped at some point.
Favorite class was there – Civil War and Reconstruction. I enjoyed my humanities break from Engineering torture.
I always tried hard not to crap there, given all the what I thought were urban legends (of gay sex stuff). Better safe than glory holed.
My favorite class in college was in Harrelson, History of Foreign Policy (right in my wheelhouse, classes like this are why I sucked as an engineering student).
It was interactive, with two term papers. The professor was great, Michigan undergrad, Ohio State grad school as I recall, had worked at the Pentagon. Don’t remember when exactly, 2000 or spring 2001, but I distinctly remember discussing the USS Cole attack and him telling us the most serious threat facing us was bin Laden.
Crazy the things we remember looking back.
I had always heard the urban legends/rumors (?) re: taking a potty break there, but I was never approached in any fashion.
I guess I just wasn’t homo-attractive. Not certain how I feel about that….I think I might be insulted. 😀
Stan and Radman, same here…Harrelson welcomed me to the world of real schooling with 8 AM Calc. Prof by the name of Huneycutt (one of the few prof’s names I remember). Halfway thru the first quiz a fellow student raised their hand and asked “Do you realize that the last part of the quiz is from the next section?” I will never forget his s***-eating grin as he obnoxiously said “of course, I felt that you should be able to do it from what we covered in this section.” Had aced math all high school and barely pulled a D. That was before standardized tests.
In fairness to H Hall my favorite prof was there as well. History 3?? the guy drew stick figures of Egyptians and told funny stories about the Nile, etc. Really made a “dry” subject interesting and fun.
And am I the only perv on here or the only honest one??? At the mention of H Hall the first thing that “pops up” in my mind are the ramps and the skirts. Skirts/dresses were phasing out even then but there was still quite a few around. Gave this 18 year old a stiff…neck.
I remember a few classes in the round building. Early morning calculus for one. Never developed a hate for the building but never a like either.
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