Oracle Online

In 1886, the men of the graduating class hauled the two-ton stone onto Hamline’s grounds as a substitute for the Proposal Rock. The Proposal Rock was a massive boulder that rested at Frog Pond (now called Newell Park). The boulder was a symbol of romance in its day, as Hamline couples used to sit on the boulder underneath a starry sky, surrounded by trees, as frogs provided mood music.

The class of 1886 had originally wanted to move the Proposal Rock to campus, but the enormous stone, weighing several tons with over 14 square feet of surface, proved too much of a burden. Funding for the project ran out, and there were considerable engineering difficulties.
The men abandoned their original project and pushed, pulled, and lugged the ersatz rock to campus.

When the rock first arrived, those who hauled it carved their year of commencement into the rock and began a tradition for succeeding classes to follow suit every 25 years. It is a tradition that has been kept, as the classes of 1911, 1936, 1961, and 1986 all followed suit.

The rock’s resting place on the path to the library was disrupted when Giddens Learning Center was planned for campus. The rock was uprooted and stored until the completion of the GLC, when it was then placed in its current location.

The original Proposal Rock was supposed to have been a place of secret-telling and first kisses, and was rumored to bring particular luck to the relationships of those who visited it. Hamline’s Proposal Rock was intended to be a reminder of young love and all that it entails.

As a representation of such, this rock has earned its place of honor on campus. In the words of former Hamline President Richard P. Bailey, “Campus love is as inevitable as a sunny spring following a frigid Minnesota winter, and almost as welcome.”

And so perhaps as we continue to hurry past this rock every day, a thought of romance will cross our minds and we’ll smile as we remember what the stone commemorates.