UConn's Spirit Rock Gets A New Home

STORRS, CT — UConn's Spirit Rock has a new home — at the well-traveled central campus quad near the Student Recreation Center, the new South Campus residence hall, and other landmarks.

The move as made Thursday.

The rock weighs in at more than 11,300 pounds and its base another 23,000 pounds. Both were lifted by a crane from the previous location near the North Garage and lowered carefully in a spot in the green space to the west of the new residence hall, which is slated to open in August.

The move was designed to locate the rock in an area that is both easily accessible and highly visible to students, and to resolve pedestrian and vehicle safety issues caused by its previous proximity to the busy Hillside Road rotary.

Today’s version of the Spirit Rock is a smaller piece of a giant rock that once sat where the George Safford Torrey Life Science Building is currently located, and which students and others had painted since at least the 1940s.

The original rock was broken up when construction began on that building in 1958, and the current 7-foot-high rock was moved to the corner of North Eagleville and Hillside roads.

It was moved to storage at the Depot Campus — when the University built the Lodewick Visitors Center at that location and the nearby North Parking Garage.

It sat idle until 2008, when the old lead-based paint was stripped off and the rock was sent to the corner of Hillside Road and Alumni Drive and then, in 2o20, to a spot next to the garage before moving one year later to the location by the traffic circle.

Rock painting rules are strict. Only actively enrolled UConn students and UConn registered student organizations can paint messages on the rock, and they must wait until the paint is fully dry on the messages of previous groups or individuals before taking a turn.