The Pentacrest is the five-building cluster on the eastern edge of the University of Iowa campus: the Old Capitol in the middle, surrounded at each corner by Macbride, Schaeffer, Jessup, and MacLean Halls. The whole quad, laid out in the 1900s, is the architectural front door of the university and the most photographed view in Iowa City.
In summer the lawn fills with frisbees and study groups; in football season it serves as a tailgating staging area before the long walk down to Kinnick Stadium. Stand on the front steps of the Old Capitol with your back to the cupola and you look straight down Iowa Avenue to the line of bronze plaques marking the city's literary heritage.