Van Wickle Gates – Brown University

Campus superstition holds that walking through the center gates more than twice guarantees you won't graduate — so the Brown University Band hops through on one foot, backwards. Built in 1901 with the bequest of Augustus Stout Van Wickle, Class of 1876, the wrought-iron gates stand at the intersection of College and Prospect Streets, crowned with the university's coat of arms and inscribed with Cicero. They open inward for Convocation, outward for Commencement — and almost never otherwise.