Currently, The Rock sits as a purple blob on the south side of campus, with “congrats class of 2026” painted in white. In a month, it may be anything but.
Next year marks the 125 anniversary of The Rock on campus. Like the layers of paint that covered it, the landmark has undergone hundreds of changes in that time. From staunch political statements to campus clubs promotions, its nine inches of pigment hold a history of the university told through student expression.
Long before The Rock became synonymous with activism and advertisement, it was a fountain.
The clock and bells of University Hall, which overlooks The Rock, were class gifts in 1879 and 1880, respectively.
This annual tradition continued in 1902, when the graduating class donated a boulder from Baraboo, Wisconsin. The grads placed this stone next to a now-filled landscaped lagoon known as Lake Atwell, named after Professor Charles Atwell, who taught botany for 34 years. This was halfway between University Hall and where Harris Hall now stands.
“It was a naturalistic setting,” said Kevin Leonard, the university historian.
By 1936, the fountain had ceased flowing, rumoured to be from frozen pipes. That year, Northwestern beat Minnesota after an undefeated season in their homecoming football game. The next morning, The Rock received an inaugural coat of maroon paint from the Golden Gophers.
In the decades after that fateful game, The Rock continued to get vandalized intermittently. In the 1960s, university officials finally gave in, after numerous attempts to stop , embracing The Rock as a part of campus culture and Northwestern tradition.
In the 1990s, Leonard said painting The Rock became so prevalent that professors at University Hall and Harris Hall began to complain of students tracking paint into their classrooms. Then university president Arnold Weber, who Leonard said was a “fiscal hawk,” requested for the relocation of the stone to avoid complaints from teachers, and moved it three yards east to where it sits now.
During the relocation, archivists found that under its hundreds of coats, the natural color of the rock is marbled purple and white.
Today, students can paint The Rock anytime, but additions are only respected if they camp out next to it for 24 hours, starting after sunset. While the university established guardrails after recent protest encampments, students are still encouraged to participate in the tradition.
“It’s definitely not the most glamorous thing,” said rising junior Ben Shapiro.
Shapiro paints The Rock once a year as part of a mock trial tradition. The competition gathers collegiate mock trial teams in early November and welcomes them with “Mock at the Rock” painted on the historical landmark.
During the 2024 presidential election, Shapiro said student political groups were repainting the boulder “literally every day” for a week leading up to the election, without respecting the 24-hour requirement.
The Rock remains after 125 years what Leonard said is a “megaphone” for students.
“The most fascinating thing about this object is that it’s not just a highly charged, symbolic, political space,” said Rebecca Johnson, associate professor of English and the Alice Kaplan Institute of the Humanities. “It’s a kind of everything space for everyone.”
