DELAND, Fla. — At Stetson University in DeLand, big plans are in the works for an important campus landmark. 

A group of alumni are issuing a $1 million challenge to raise the remaining funds needed to reconstruct Hulley Tower, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to the school, the tower was damaged during the 2004 hurricane season, so in 2005, its upper section was dismantled due to safety concerns.

The project received a $500,000 state preservation grant last June, and some alumni this is the time to rebuild this piece of Florida history.

“It’s a special place to me," said Stetson University alumnus Diane Erickson. "I was a student here, just had my 50th reunion in the fall. My daughter came here, and I had been an adjunct instructor for 10 years here."

A Stetson University staff member Sidney Johnston agreed that the school is a special place.

“You might say, I was born and raised at Stetson, in part because my great-grandfather and great-grandmother knew John Forbes and Lincoln Hulley, the first two presidents of Stetson University,”  said Sidney Johnston, associate director of grants and sponsored research at Stetson University said.

Stetson alumnus Bob McClelland said the memories he made at the university have lasted a lifetime. 

“The university was awesome to me while I was here," he said. "It was a great experience."

The three call Stetson home, and are doing what they can to preserve the history of an institution they love. 

That’s why the historic Hulley Tower project is important to them. 

For McClelland, this mission of reconstruction is a personal one. 

“It represents an opportunity to memorialize the unfortunate passing away of one of my fraternity brothers, pledge classmates, Scotty Fenlon, who was involved in an avalanche in Austria in 1979,” McClelland said. 

Inside the tower is a mausoleum where President Lincoln Hulley and his wife Eloise rest. 

“This bell tower, which is freestanding, is the only collegiate freestanding bell tower on an American college campus that includes a mausoleum as its base, and as originally designed,” Johnston said. 

Also inside, a memorial sits for Katy Resnik, Fenlon, and Dennis Long. 

The ladders each representing their respective sorority and fraternity. 

This reconstruction project aims to not only remember them with a memorial, but other students the school lost during their time there. 

“Although the rebuild of Hulley Tower is much more than just those three, these three are very much a part of this effort,” Johnston said. 

Renderings show what the tower could look like once completed. The goal is to have it look just as it was when finished in 1934. This will also serve as a space for community events and other activities.

“I feel like we’re bringing back the soul of Stetson," Erickson said. "It’s a gathering place, there are beautiful bells, we’re going to have a beautiful 52 bell carillon, it’s going to be even better than it was, which is hard to imagine."  

Stetson University officials say they plan to break ground on the project on Feb. 24. 

During the deconstruction process, the remains of the Hulley’s, who reside in the mausoleum, will be removed from the site and will be cared for elsewhere as the new base is built. 

Reconstruction is expected to last about nine months.