A Spirited Past: Meet Me at the Gate

By Kathy Douglas

April 24, 2008

I am older than yesterday and younger than tomorrow.
I symbolize the past yet I fully encompass the future.
Some say I am made from mortar and brick,
But the truly wise know that I am built of determination and faith.
Some consider me worthless,
While others dedicate their entire lives to upholding my principles.
I can tell many truths to those who listen with their hearts,
Yet I have never been known to speak or write a word.
Paradoxical? Well perhaps so, but isn’t all of life that way?
And I…I am a symbol of life, Christian life,
In the school where students learn to live.

I am the Mizpah Gate.

 This poem, from the 1955 Mizpah yearbook, tells the story of an important symbol of Southwestern Adventist University.  According to its plaque, the Mizpah Gate was a gift from the class of 1937.  It is imbedded with petrified wood, connecting it with the past even when it was new.

The class of 1937 was the first class to produce an annual after four years of national depression.  The profit from that yearbook provided the money for supplies for the gate. The design for the gate came from then-college president, H.H. Hamilton.  According to Mary Ann Hadley, director of the Ellen G. White Research Center and SWAU historian, the labor came from students.

Hadley says that the gate is based on the designer’s initials, HHH, with a large H in the middle and a small h coming out from each side.  Hamilton was a talented artist, and a watercolor painting of the Mizpah Gate by Hamilton hangs in the Hopps Museum.  According to Hadley, the gate has been the subject of many beautiful pieces of artwork over the years.

For many years, the Mizpah Gate served as the symbol of SWAU until the new centennial library was built.  Hadley said it appeared on diplomas and letterheads.

The name of the gate comes from the yearbook which paid for it.  The yearbook got its name from Genesis 31:49, which is often called the Mizpah benediction. “The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.” (NKJV)

The first Southwestern yearbook appeared in 1921.  Hadley said, at that time the students were very missionary minded. “We sent a lot of missionaries all over the world, and these were lifers.  They were going to go to India, China, or South America for the rest of their life. Some would never see their friends again in this lifetime, and the Mizpah benediction became very important to them.”

Bev Mendenhall, SWAU alumni relations director, says that students once marched through the gate as part of the graduation ceremony.  During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the graduation ceremony was held at the Keene Adventist Church and the students would exit the campus through the Mizpah Gate on their way to the church.  

William Kilgore, professor of religion, says that the campus was once surrounded by barbed wire, “not to keep the students in, but to keep the cattle out,” and the gate was one of the only ways onto the campus.  The barbed wire eventually was replaced with a rock fence designed to match the gate.  

According to Hadley, the rock fence came down in the late 50s or early 60s.   “They seriously thought about tearing down the Mizpah Gate at that time, but there was a great outcry to save it because of the sentimental feelings towards the gate,” said Hadley. “It was a highly spiritual, but also a key social place on campus.”

Mary Capen, a senior religion major, is glad that they didn’t tear it down.  She goes out of her way every Sabbath to go through the gate on her way to church.

A 1941 Southwestern Union Record article has H.H. Hamilton inviting new students to come to Southwestern, where “we will be at the gate to welcome you when you enter.”  

According to Hadley, this became a common theme.  At that time, the Mizpah Gate was the main entrance to the campus and whenever visitors or new students were expected, someone would say, “We will meet you at the gate.”

The Mizpah Gate stands as a majestic reminder of days past and faithful sacrifice.  Southwestern wouldn’t be the same without it.

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