The Adventurers’ Guide to Exploring Harper Memorial Library
A lot of the new students may not know, that there’s actually an underground library under Harper. It’s locked now, but there are still some ways to get in (which you have to figure it out yourself.)
However, once you get in, you are in a totally new world that has never been seen before on campus. You’d be in awe – at least I was. It’s magical, bizzare, and exciting. Your heart will beat (a bit) faster. The lights are dimmed in an awkward gloomy brown color; a tiny little noise may scare the shit out of you.
You will discover extremely old books from hundreds of years ago – that no one reads any more. Most of the books are here because they are outdated and no one checks them out any more. A lot of the books here are really huge! There’s a stack of huge books that are about waist-high. You can’t really open them on the shelf because they’re too huge. It’s really interesting to see how big the books were back then. People can even lie down and take a nap in those gigantic books. I wonder how people would read them. They need really big tables! Maybe these books are for giants. Maybe there used to be giants studying at UChicago, just like Hagrid at Hogwarts.
Another thing you will discover is old students’ papers. It’s quite weird to see old final papers from the 40s, 50s, or all the way to 70s, 80s. Those papers are covered in dusts. some are scattered around on the ground. Obviously, no one really goes to the basement library.
The lights down there are also strange, like in Stranger Things – they dangle in subtle movements, and they sometimes would go off for no reason, then come back on. I was really scared the several times it happened when I was down there.
The basement is not only just that. The whole quad is actually all connected together underground. I once walked through the quad in those underground tunnels between two buildings. There’s also a control room under Cobb – not sure if it’s still there. Staff of the engineering departments actually work down there, though most of the time, no one is there. So, be careful you might bump into some staff on this wild adventure.
P.S. the two towers of the Harper Building are also climbable.
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