Photo of "the Searcher" carving on front of Tomlinson Hall

Guess Where: Tomlinson Hall’s “the Searcher”

This week’s Guess Where photo paid homage to a Case Western Reserve University legend.

Guess Where photo for June 5, 2017
The “Searcher” on a quest for knowledge above Tomlinson Hall.

We shared a photo of “the Searcher,” the carving above the entrance of Tomlinson Hall. Most respondents correctly named the carving’s location.

Tomlinson Hall was built in 1947 as the new student center at Case Institute of Technology. As rumor had it, the carving was a Spartan, and it was looking down on the students of Adelbert College, the men’s college of Western Reserve University.

However, the moniker “Spartan” wasn’t used until the federation of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University—20 years after the building was constructed.

According to the Little Blue Book, architect Frank E. Rhinehart said of the carving: “In modeling this figure, we endeavored to tell a story of ‘the Searcher,’ ever searching for new things in the world and in science that make for a better world in which all society may live and prosper.”