A closer look at a brand new freshman’s three-hour tour

Adam Stevenson smiled slightly as his face reddened while he slid his Steelers hat off his… Adam Stevenson smiled slightly as his face reddened while he slid his Steelers hat off his head. Pitt Pathfinder Kevin Kelly had just finished describing why a former Pitt chancellor had wanted to construct such grandiose ceilings: “so that a student wouldn’t need to be told to take off their hat.”

“I don’t mean to chastise you,” Kelly said, chuckling alongside Adam’s parents.

Adam — a 17-year-old prospective student currently attending North Allegheny High School — brought along his mother, father and younger sister for a campus tour of Pitt last Saturday.

Dressed in khaki shorts, khaki capris, short-sleeve T-shirts and tennis shoes, the Stevensons — Tom, Marsha, Adam and Abbey — gathered on the steps of Alumni Hall, glancing up and down Fifth Avenue.

Kelly, their campus tour guide, began the tour and described how Alumni Hall used to be a Masonic Temple before Pitt converted it for its campus, but Adam looked more at the sidewalk than at the building. His mother, Marsha Stevenson, however, eyed the building and made notes with a blue panther-shaped pencil in an information packet.

After Kelly pointed out Clapp Hall, Marsha found the picture of the building on the packet’s map of Pitt’s campus and glanced down at it before looking back up at the building.

Kelly then walked down the stairs backward, telling the family that he would be walking backward the entire time. When the group crossed Fifth Avenue and walked down the pathway behind the Cathedral of Learning, Kelly barely even looked at the ground as he dodged a puddle and quizzed the family on who owned the columned building behind Heinz Chapel.

“Anyone know?” he asked.

“Carnegie Mellon,” Marsha volunteered immediately.

“Right,” said Kelly, explaining that Pitt students could take classes at other universities if they found interesting courses that Pitt didn’t offer.

When the group entered the Cathedral, Kelly showed them the Syria-Lebanon Room and explained that Pitt built many nationality rooms and modeled them after different ethnic groups: the Japanese room, the Indian room, the Armenian room, etc.

Next, the group made their way over to Posvar Hall, where Kelly asked them if they knew what the building had been before Pitt converted it into classrooms.

“Forbes Field,” Tom said, too quietly for anyone to hear.

Kelly waited for a moment. “Anyone know?”

“The baseball field?” Marsha guessed.

“Right,” Kelly said, explaining that Pitt students and faculty used to be able to see the baseball games from the top floors of the Cathedral.

“For a while I was bragging about Philly but then they had like a six-game skidder,” Kelly said.

“The Pirates could do a six-game skidder in their sleep,” Tom said, speaking up for one of the first times during the tour.

Kelly then led the Stevensons to the corner of Posvar Hall and pointed out an old home plate from Forbes Field, where Babe Ruth hit his last two career home runs.

“You can walk across it for good luck. One kid who was a Pathfinder used to slide across it, but I have a little too much concern for my physical safety,” Kelly said.

Marsha turned to Adam and Abbey. “Walk across it, walk across it,” she said, going first. After Adam walked across the plate, Tom went next, shuffling his feet on top of it. Abbey sauntered across the plate last.

Finishing their tour of Posvar Hall, the group descended the stairs near the Pitt Police station to the corner of South Bouquet Street and Forbes Avenue.

Kelly started walking backward across Forbes Avenue as cars made right turns inches away from him. Still facing the family, who stood on the edge of the street, unsure if they should follow him, Kelly motioned with his hands to come forward.

“You guys can follow me,” Kelly said.

Looking both ways, the Stevensons crossed the street and followed Kelly to the safety of the opposite sidewalk, through the construction near Hemingway’s and up the steps leading into the Schenley Quadrangle.

“Be careful, I nearly lost someone on the steps the other day,” Kelly said, before leading the family through a maze of green fabric and cardboard walkways near the entrance to Towers’ Lobby.

“You could play paintball in here,” he said.

Kelly signed the group into Tower B, where he lived as a freshman, and led them up the stairs to a second floor dorm room where they joined another Pathfinder group and two other Pitt Pathfinders who sat on the beds and greeted them.

“Feel free to grab a seat,” Kelly said.

No one moved.

On one half of the room, there was a bed adorned with a blue comforter and blue sheets underneath a blue and gold Pitt banner on the wall. On the other half of the room there was a bed with a pink comforter and brightly colored picture frames on the desk.

“Are the rooms co-ed?” Marsha asked.

“No, no,” said most of the Pathfinders in unison.

“No one actually lives here,” said another Pathfinder. “It wouldn’t be this clean. And there would be books.”

Kelly finished the tour in the William Pitt Union and asked the family if they had any questions.

Marsha spoke up first. “I would like to see the Petersen Events Center.”

“Actually, I think he pretty much answered everything,” Adam interjected quickly.