Historians to offer campus walking tour in celebration of Gator history

June 7, 2010

Note: This event is part of Creative B, a new summer program at the University of Florida that consolidates the collective resources and talents of the many creative programs at UF. Creative B participants may choose from a variety of live cultural performances, unique courses with an artistic edge, and a wide range of interdisciplinary summer activities. For more details, visit http://news.ufl.edu/2010/06/07/uf-introduces-%e2%80%98creative-b%e2%80%99-program-to-highlight-cultural-enrichment-during-summer-b/.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Why are we called The Gators and who designed the first buildings on campus? Join UF Historian Carl Van Ness and John Ingram, chair of the Preservation of Historic Buildings and sites Committee, for a walk through Gator history, and the answers to those questions and more. The 90-minute tour includes more than 15 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in the Campus Historic District.

The tour leaders will explain the history behind the buildings’ walls, with an emphasis on the ever-changing culture of the student body. The tour will stress the university’s commitment to historic preservation and gator pride in our past. Tour participants will receive T-shirts and have the opportunity to take the Gator history trivia quiz and have the chance to win prizes.

Tours will assemble at 9:30 a.m. outside Buckman Hall and end at 11 a.m., June 3 and 10, and July 22 and 29, at Smathers Library. Tours are limited to 25 people.