Wentworth Institute of Technology: About Us

Trivia

At the time the directors purchased the land for the Wentworth campus in 1908, the neighborhood was best known as the locale of the Huntington Avenue Grounds, home of the Boston Red Sox from 1901 until 1912, when Fenway Park opened. Today, Northeastern University's Cabot Gymnasium resides on the site of the former ball grounds.

The Museum of Fine Arts opened its Huntington Avenue facility in 1909. One of the MFA's most beloved landmarks is the "Appeal to the Great Spirit" statue on the front lawn. Its sculptor, Cyrus Dallin, also designed the World War II plaque that hangs outside Wentworth's Watson Auditorium.

Of the 654 students enrolled in day courses in 1925-26, 359 were high school graduates. It wasn't until 1930 that Wentworth required applicants for admission to hold a high school diploma.

Wentworth shut down during the 1943-44 school year to provide training for the armed forces.

Harold Rice, a chemistry and math instructor for more than 30 years at Wentworth, left the institute in 1944 to work for 18 months as an analytical group leader on the Manhattan Project, the United States' top-secret effort to construct the atomic bomb.

In the '30s and '40s, Wentworth's intercollegiate sports teams were known as the "Technicians." Ever since then, they have been known as the "Leopards," which comes from the trio of leopards on the institute's official seal.

In 1957-58, Wentworth began offering evening degree programs. The first class consisted of 136 students.

Russell Colley, MC&TD '18, invented the silver nylon space suit worn by Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard on America's first manned space flight on May 5, 1961. The suit was also used on other Mercury flights, including John Glenn's orbital mission.

When Beatty Hall opened in 1967, Wentworth's Physical Plant employees hatched an ingenious system to move the books into the new library. Instead of lugging books up and down four flights of stairs, they hung a wire between the main building and Beatty Hall, and winched the texts across the quad.

Wentworth went co-ed in 1972, when the first five women enrolled at the institute. Today, approximately 20 percent of each class is female.

For the 1978 commencement, several student pranksters put a new roof on a security kiosk at the entrance to the West Parking Lot, making the kiosk look like a Fotomat dropoff location. The handiwork was quite convincing; about 10 different families pulled up to the kiosk as they drove out of the parking lot, and dropped off the film containing the photos they had just taken of commencement.

In January 1990, Wentworth installed a 600kW cogeneration unit in its Power Plant. Running on natural gas, the cogenerator produces two-thirds of the electricity needed for the main campus during the summer months; 200 tons of steam to power the chiller plant in the summer; steam for heat during the winter, allowing the institute to sell power back to the utility; and enough backup power to allow the school to stay open during "brown-out" conditions.

In 2001, Wentworth spent $1.5 million to upgrade the campus information technology infrastructure, which now includes a robust 18-MB fiber circuit — which has paved the way for a digital network powerful enough to accommodate students using computers in 25 open laboratories, as well as in every dorm room on campus.

During the 2005-06 academic year more than 1,500 Wentworth students contributed 52,960 hours to community-based work and service. According to Independent Sector and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a volunteer hour in Massachusetts has a value in excess of $22. Thus for 2005-06 Wentworth’s service efforts had an estimated economic impact of at least $1,165,120.


	Quick fact: Principal Williston donated his Studebaker to the machine shop in 1915. It was a precious asset for the shop; at the time, only one out of 100 people in the United States owned an automobile.