Yale College

Yale University – Welch Hall // 1891

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As Yale University continued to enclose its Old Yard with elongated dormitories in the second half of the 19th century, the proprietors began to experiment with slight deviations to the prototypical Victorian Gothic piles built in the previous decades. Following a financial gift from Pierce N. Welch, an 1862 graduate of Yale College, and his sisters in memory of their late father, Harmanus M. Welch, the college hired architect Bruce Price to furnish plans for the new dormitory. Welch Hall is built of Longmeadow Freestone, the building is more Romanesque in style with arched masonry openings, the rough hewn stone walls, and pointed dormers projecting through the eave lines.

Yale University – Lawrance Hall // 1886

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Lawrance Hall was built in 1886 following a financial gift to the college by Frances (Garner) Lawrance, as a memorial to her late son, Thomas Garner Lawrance (1862-1883), who died unexpectedly during his senior year at Yale. The building was designed by New York architect Russell Sturgis, who previously designed Farnam and Durfee halls as well as the Battell Chapel, all enclosing the northeastern edge of the Old Yard. Lawrance Hall is the last Victorian Gothic style building constructed at Yale and also Sturgis’ last commission at the college. Here, Sturgis designed a Gothic building to provide continuity to his earlier dormitories nearby, but added French flair seen at the end towers and rounded turrets at the street facade. The French inspiration may have been a suggestion by Mr. and Mrs. Lawrance as they operated Cercle anglais, an English Club in Pau, France where they occupied Villa Lawrance, when living there. Today, Lawrance Hall is the freshman dormitory for Ezra Stiles College at Yale.

Yale University – Battell Chapel // 1874

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As the Old Campus of Yale was being enclosed at its north and east by Farnam and Durfee halls, architect Russell Sturgis was again tasked to design a new building, but for a corner site; though this time, he would design a college chapel. Built between 1874–76, it was funded primarily with gifts from Joseph Battell. Succeeding two previous chapel buildings on Yale’s Old Campus, it provided space for daily chapel services, which were mandatory for Yale students until 1926, which were all-male and mostly Protestant. The large stone chapel is constructed of New Jersey brownstone with decorative elements in sandstone. The design of the Victorian Gothic chapel is great, but how it sits with the entrance unceremoniously dumping out to the end wall of Durfee Hall leaves much to be desired.

Yale University – Durfee Hall // 1871

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Following his success of designing Farnam Hall at Yale, architect Russell Sturgis was again commissioned to design Durfee Hall, the residence hall built to enclose the northern edge of the Old Campus Yard. The elongated dormitory was the largest and most imposing building on the Old Campus when it was completed and was named for its benefactor, Bradford M. C. Durfee of Fall River, Massachusetts. The exterior of Durfee is covered in a combination of sandstone and bluestone, and is accentuated with gables, ornate turrets, and large brick chimneys. Upon its completion, it was considered a “high point in Victorian Gothic Style architecture,” and critics from American Architect and Building News commented that “It will be a long time before the quiet dignity of its roof and chimneys will be surpassed anywhere.” The exterior was renovated by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc.

Yale University – Farnam Hall // 1870

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Farnam Hall is Yale University’s oldest dormitory still in use. Designed by New York architect Russell Sturgis in a Ruskinian High Victorian Gothic style, Farnam Hall is considered Sturgis’s most important work and was completed in 1871, marking a new direction toward an enclosed campus, shielded off from the surrounding downtown district of New Haven. Named for Henry Farnam, its construction required the removal of the Second President’s House and a section of the Yale Fence, which was met with some trepidation. The red brick, four-story building originally consisted of twenty suites and ten common rooms on each floor. Sturgis, who was influenced by John Ruskin’s ideals put forward in his Seven Lamps of Architecture, used a variety of brick and stone on the facade all with hand carved detailing. Farnam Hall was renovated in 1977 by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and today serves as a dormitory for first-year students belonging to Yale’s Jonathan Edwards College.

Yale University – Bingham Hall // 1928

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One of my (many) favorite buildings at Yale University is Bingham Hall, a monumental and landmark example of the Collegiate Gothic architecture style. Built in 1928, replacing the 1888 Osborn Hall (last post), Bingham Hall was constructed as an inward-facing freshman dormitory by architect, Walter B. Chambers, who had just overseen the completion of his first building at Yale, the Colonial Revival style McClellan Hall. Built of Longmeadow brownstone, Bingham Hall largely constructed from funds donated by the children of Charles W. Bingham (Yale, 1868), a Cleveland based businessman. The building stands five stories with a massive nine-story corner tower and helped solidify Yale’s iconic Collegiate Gothic architecture for the future buildings and growth as well.

Yale University – Osborn Hall // 1888-1926

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One of the biggest architectural losses at Yale was the demolition of the grandiose Osborn Hall in 1926, after standing less than 38 years! The building was constructed in 1888 at the southeast corner of the Old Yard at Yale, at the corner of College and Chapel streets, and was a landmark example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. Designed by architect Bruce Price, the building was designed to face outward and was said to resemble a “squating toad with an open lip”. While architecturally stunning, the building was immediately met with criticism. Its construction necessitated the removal of the cherished Yale fence and the outward-facing design made it hard for students to focus on lectures while the sounds of horses and carriages on the cobblestone streets just outside. The short-lived Osborn Hall was razed in 1926 for Bingham Hall (next post), a prominently designed, but inward-facing building.

Yale University – Linsly Hall // 1906

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Just 15 years after the Chittenden Memorial Library (last post) was constructed to provide overflow space for Yale’s Old Library, the college overseers sought to expand yet again. Linsly Hall was built in 1906 as an addition to the 1880s Richardsonian Romanesque Chittenden library building, but in the Collegiate Gothic style, which was quickly becoming a preferred architecture style for the campus. Linsly Hall was built as a connector between the two library buildings with a tunnel-like passage between the structures. This was quickly deemed inadequate for a college of this stature, and the 1930s Sterling Library was built outside of the yard decades later. Architect Charles C. Haight designed Linsly Hall following the same design elements as his popular Vanderbilt Hall, built 10 years prior nearby. Today, the Linsly Hall (and the adjoining Chittenden Hall) is classroom space.

Yale University – Chittenden Hall // 1889

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As Yale’s 1842 Old Library was outgrown by larger class sizes and a growing college library collection, overseers began planning for a new library annex which could support the programming. Architect J. Cleaveland Cady was commissioned to design the Chittenden Memorial Library, this underappreciated structure, which is today hemmed into a cramped space in the yard between a later addition (Linsly Hall) and McClennan Hall. The Chittenden Memorial Library was a gift to the college by U.S. Representative Simeon Baldwin Chittenden in memory of his only daughter, Mary Chittenden Lusk (1840-1871) nearly two decades following her untimely death. The handsome Richardsonian Romanesque style library building also retains its original stained glass window titled, “Education” by Louis Tiffany which today is in the building’s former reading room, now a large classroom. When the library moved to a new building in the 1930s, Chittenden Memorial Library became Chittenden Hall and is classroom space.

Yale University – Dwight Hall // 1842

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One of the most architecturally significant college buildings in the United States, Dwight Hall was designed to house the growing book collection of Yale College as its library. The former Yale College Library, now Dwight Hall, represents a significant shift in Yale’s campus architecture from Georgian and Federal brick buildings to the Gothic mode which the campus is largely known for today. Dwight Hall was designed by local architect Henry Austin with the guidance of esteemed architects Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, both experts in early high-style Gothic buildings in America. The design, to me, resembles the 1443 King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. The structure is constructed of brownstone from Portland, Connecticut, and it is composed of a central block with two smaller flanking wings on either side connected by smaller linking spaces. At the yard facade, two octagonal towers with domed copper roofs rise, flanking a large, pointed lancet arch window that extends above the doorway. The library was outgrown fairly quickly, necessitating an annex next door and eventually collections were transferred to Sterling Memorial Library in 1930, the Old Library was converted to a chapel and community service building and is known as Dwight Hall.