Above is of one of the many brick formations at NC State. These in particular are next to Stewart Theatre.

What exactly is the story with these things all over campus? I’ve heard that there used to be many many more. I’ve also heard other stories, about an anonymous donor who donated bricks every year to the university, so these things were built all over with the surplus.

The NC State article on Wikipedia says that

Due to oversupply, odd brick statues dot the landscape, a large section of main campus is paved over with brick (University Plaza, a.k.a. “The Brickyard”), and most sidewalks are also made with brick. These sidewalks are also dotted with white brick mosaics.

An alumni association web page talking about the brickyard has the following Q & A:

An anonymous donor gave NC State the bricks for the university plaza.
FICTION. The bricks were donated but not secretly. The N.C. Bricklayers’ Association provided them. The original design by landscape architect Richard C. Bell ‘50 called for the Brickyard to be built with Belgian block, a hand-cut, granite cobblestone. But that was too expensive. He altered the plans and solicited donations from the brick industry. “Ever since the shift of campus activities in the early ‘60s to the catacombs of the roundhouse and the busy hubbub of the union, people have been screaming about the muddy paths around Harrelson and the bleakness of the quadrangle. Technician editors, student leaders, design students, even secretaries in open-toed sandals have begged, pleaded, and demanded the building of sidewalks in place of the donut’s rickety wooden thresholds and gooey, gray pathways.”
-Technician, May 13, 1966

I can’t help but wonder if the anonymous donor to the brickyard story spawned the ones about the structures. Why was there an oversupply in the first place? Was it left over from building the brickyard? Or just from other donations?