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Vanderbilt Hall: then and now

1901 vs 2014 · New Haven, CT

Vanderbilt Hall, 2014Vanderbilt Hall, 1901
NowThen
Then, 1901A tinted photo of the long dormitory with turrets and a fence, with a wide street and cobbles in front.Photo: Detroit Publishing Co. · Public domain · Source · resized, cropped
Today, 2014The same castle-like dormitory with a street lamp and a stone gate post, under a bright blue sky.Photo: Nick Allen · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source · resized

The story

Vanderbilt Hall on Yale's Old Campus was completed in 1894. It was designed by Charles Coolidge Haight, an architect from New York City who also designed most of the buildings at Columbia College's old campus on Madison Avenue.

Haight designed many buildings at Yale. Phelps Gate followed Vanderbilt Hall in 1895, and Phelps Hall in 1896. Yale's collegiate Gothic look is more often credited to the better-known James Gamble Rogers, but many of Haight's buildings survive.

This is a good place to see the contrast. The 1901 photo shows the tall dorm with a tinted sky and cobbles, and the modern photo shows a lamp post and a stone gate post where the old street scene was.

Did you know? Haight finished Phelps Gate in 1895, one year after Vanderbilt Hall.
Historians argue about this. Many people think Yale's Gothic look is all by one architect. Wikipedia says Rogers is better known, but Haight designed many of the survivors.

Fact or tall tale?

Sources

More: Look for historic photos at the Library of Congress

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Next: Dwight Hall. Written from the cited sources, not yet walked on site unless noted.