Brick City weekend celebrates 50 years in Henrietta

This year’s Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend has special meaning because RIT is celebrating 50 years at the Henrietta campus. The weekend will include special 50th anniversary celebrations, along with the annual homecoming events.

RIT’s 189-year history dates back to the 1829 founding of the Rochester Athenaeum. In 1968, the university moved from downtown Rochester—where it had been since 1885—to a newly built campus in the town of Henrietta. Brick was the main material used to build RIT’s new facilities, giving the new campus the nickname “Brick City.”

Anniversary events during Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend Oct. 19––21 are free and open to the RIT community and general public. They include:

• Transforming the Landscape - Rededication of the Henrietta Campus: The event includes musical performances and talks from RIT President David Munson and other campus and community leaders. A 3D model of the monumental benches designed by RIT industrial design students during the 2018 T-Minus 151 project will be unveiled. The benches will be made of reclaimed wood from a century-old oak tree that once stood at RIT’s entrance and fell during a windstorm in 2017. The event is 9–10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 19, in Ingle Auditorium, Student Alumni Union (SAU).
• Walking Tour of Downtown Campus: Attendees can tour RIT’s former downtown campus, 2–4 p.m. Oct. 19, starting at an RIT Archives exhibit at Paul Lewis Arena (the former Ritter-Clark Memorial Building), 1 Boys Club Place Rochester, N.Y. 14608.
• Downtown Campus Historical Marker Dedication: RIT and city of Rochester leaders will commemorate RIT’s origins by dedicating a historical marker where the downtown campus existed until 1968. The event is from 2:30 to 3 p.m. Oct. 19, across from the Bevier Memorial Building, at the corner of South Washington Street and Spring Street.
• Book launch and exhibit opening: The event will mark the release of the RIT Press book, Transforming the Landscape: 50 Years on the New RIT Campus, an illustrated history of the Henrietta campus and its architecture. Books will be available for sale at the event. The University Gallery will also be adorned with RIT Archives images representing 50 years of history in Henrietta. The event takes place 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, in University Gallery.
• RIT Museum exhibit “Rewarding Investment in Tomorrow”: An exhibit by RIT Archives will allow attendees to explore images and artifacts that document the growth of campus, with a special focus on the planning and construction. The exhibit is 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Oct. 20, on the third floor of Wallace Library. The exhibit will remain open throughout the 2018-2019 academic year.

RIT is celebrating the Henrietta campus milestone with a year of activities during 2018-2019. Throughout the year, RIT is hosting “50 Acts of Kindness,” a series of programs and events that demonstrate how RIT Tigers give back to the Rochester community. The celebration will culminate with a Futurists Symposium hosted at the 2019 Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival, held April 27, 2019.

For more information on Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend Oct. 19–21, go to rit.edu/brickcity. For more information on the 50th Anniversary of the Henrietta Campus, go to rit.edu/henrietta50.