Ralph Adams Cram designed your Cleveland Tower as a 1913 memorial to former president Grover Cleveland. Designed by Ralph Adams Cram, it is one of the defining Collegiate Gothic features of the university’s Graduate College. The tower was built in 1913 as a memorial to former university trustee and U.S. President Grover Cleveland, and a bust of the former president is the centerpiece of the grand chamber at the tower’s ground level.
The carillon you hear or will hear was the gift of the Class of 1892, presented as their 35th reunion dedication to the university in 1927. The English foundry Gillett & Johnston cast the original 35 bells, and a plaque near the tower’s entrance reads, “The Class of Eighteen Ninety Two presents the carillon in this tower to Princeton University with love and gratitude and the hope that its bells may ever inspire coming generations of Princeton men to maintain the traditions of their alma mater in the service of God and of their country. The bells were originally dedicated on June 17, 1927, and were rededicated after decades of varying use and maintenance on June 13, 1993; the Class of 1892 Bells are now one of the largest carillons.
Notice the belfry above, the bust in the grand chamber, and the Graduate College spreading beyond it.