Yale architecture, from 'Potty Court' to prostitutes

Dark, looming towers, walls of ivy-covered stone, grotesque carvings leering from the eaves: most Yale buildings look like something out of the 11th century. But Yale was founded in 1701, which was not exactly the Middle Ages, and the neo-Gothic architecture that dominates Yale's campus is actually only about 60 years old.

In preparation for the dawn of the "machine age," prominent architects of the 1930s designed houses made either entirely of glass or buildings without any glass at all. Yale, however, hired architect James Gamble Rogers to give the school an older feel. The University sought to imitate Britain's venerable Oxford and Cambridge Universities: established bastions of academic prestige.

Built in 1750, Connecticut Hall on Old Campus is the oldest building at Yale. With its plantation-style brick exterior, it looks more recent than Yale's dark Gothic structures. Rather than paying homage to earlier models, Connecticut Hall was built true to the Georgian style of the period. Other examples of this architecture include Timothy Dwight, Pierson, and the interior of Davenport College.

Although the Gothic style which dominates the rest of the campus was intended to inspire fear and awe in cathedral-goers of yore, it has a distinctly 20th-century twist at Yale. For example, a closer look at the friezes of Sterling Memorial Library reveals that the carvings are far from traditional in scope. In one first-floor corridor, a series of carvings depicts one student sleeping at a desk while another lounges with a cigarette, a mug of beer, and a poster of a naked woman above him. One stone student is reading, but the book in his hands devilishly taunts,"U.R.A. Joke."

More seamy tales abound on the walls of the Law School, where you can find a lax professor sleeping through class, a prostitute being arrested, and a drunk talking his way out of a conviction. In Trumbull's "Potty Court," you will discover a gargoyle who appears to be relieving himself. Many carved-out niches in the stonework actually lack any statues at all. In an odd effort to make these ancient-looking buildings seem authentic, Rogers ordered such niches to be carved and left empty to deceive us into thinking that the statues had been stolen over time, as often happened to ancient cathedrals.

Although Rogers' original design intended Sterling to stand taller, the project ran low on funds. As it is, the library contains 14 stories of book stacks. However, rumors circulate about what exactly rests on the roof of the building. A popular explanation is that the construction crew built a small castle out of excess building materials to hide machinery for the monstrous air-conditioning system. But some boastful climbers claim to have seen an entire miniature city up there—complete with its own stone golf course.

Sterling isn't the only building at Yale with a deceptive appearance. In Saybrook and Branford Colleges, Rogers required that at least one pane on every window be broken and then soldered back together. Rogers reportedly argued that the windows were going to be broken anyway. The resulting effect of the crafty soldering makes a Y-shape appear in many windows, as if the forces of time would have had Yale spirit.

Rogers went to great lengths to make Yale feel authentically antique. Unlike most neo-Gothic architecture, which is built with steel frames and merely reinforced with stone exteriors, Yale's Gothic buildings are, for the most part, built with solid stone instead. The 216-foot Harkness Tower was once the tallest free-standing stone structure in the world, before worried architects decided to reinforce it.

The top level of gargoyles in Harkness depict the four aspects of a Yale student: pen-wielding writer, proficient athlete, tea-drinking socialite, and diligent scholar. Apparently the architect was also an idealist. For an accurate modern representation, perhaps the student with the mug of beer on Sterling's wall should be part of this group as well.

Back to Something Blue...