Hello Old Friend Tile Project

The Hello Old Friend Tile Project consists of nearly 500 tiles that were hand-painted by attendants of the 1997 Ithaca Festival. The tile wall can be found around the corner from the Moosewood Restaurant. Tiles were painted by people ages 2-72, and feature a broad array of depictions of friendship (Hello Old Friend was the Ithaca Festival theme of the year), as well as Tompkins County attractions and landmarks. The project was originally sponsored by The Tile House and the DeWitt Mall and is a permanent art installation in the DeWitt Mall.

See if you can find the tiles highlighted in this description!

Cornell University's McGraw Clock Tower, located adjacent to Uris Library in the center of the Cornell campus, was built in 1891 and named for Jennie McGraw, a close family friend of Ezra Cornell. The 173-foot clock tower was originally a library and now houses the Cornell Chimes, a 21-bell set of chimes played daily by “chimesmasters.” The bells first rang at Cornell's opening ceremonies on October 7, 1868, and have since played three concerts daily during the school year with a reduced schedule during the summer and semester breaks, making it one of the largest and most frequently played sets of chimes in the world. Every morning concert since 1869 has begun with the "Cornell Changes" (affectionately known as the "Jennie McGraw Rag"). The Cornell "Alma Mater" is played at the midday concert, and the "Cornell Evening Song" at the end of the evening concert.

EcoVillage Ithaca, located just off of Rt. 79 West outside of Ithaca, is a co-housing community founded in 1991 by Ithacans Joan Bokaer and Liz Walker. FROG (First Residents Group) is EcoVillage Ithaca’s first neighborhood, completed in 1997, and the first cohousing project in the State of New York. The concept of EcoVillage is to build small neighborhoods with the goal of becoming self-sustainable through renewable energy and local food systems maintained by community members.

In Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, A. B. Graham started a youth program called “The Tomato Club” or the “Corn Growing Club,” considered to be the first 4‑H organization in the United States. T.A. Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs that same year. Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and by 1912, the clubs became known as 4‑H clubs. The passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 created the Cooperative Extension System at USDA and nationalized 4‑H. New York State 4-H is a part of Cornell University Cooperative Extension and first began running programs in Tompkins County in 1913. In 1986, the CCE-Tompkins Education Center moved to its current location at 615 Willow Avenue just off Route 13 in Ithaca. CCE-Tompkins also owns 4-H Acres, a nature facility located on Lower Creek Road that serves as the site of the annual 4-H Youth Fair and other activities. New York 4-H connects over 170,000 youth across New York State to hands-on learning opportunities each year.

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