In 1887, Bishop Henry Codman Potter, having seen the splendor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, called for the construction of a cathedral that would rival, if not surpass, it. By 1891, the bishop had the deed to a plot of land for the cathedral, and construction began on December 27th, 1892. Many parts of the cathedral called for extensive periods of construction, such as a set of pillars which alone took more than a year to install. Though the cathedral was nowhere near complete, services began in 1899 in the crypts. As construction continued, some tension arose as to the style of architecture that the cathedral was to be built in, but both sides eventually settled on a Gothic style. Despite design difficulties and monetary issues throughout the Great Depression, the cathedral had its grand opening on November 30th, 1941.

Coinciding with the entrance of the United States into World War II, construction on the cathedral ceased, as money for the construction was instead used to help the war effort. It was not until 1972 that new construction on the cathedral was considered. In 1979, construction was back underway and work began on towers and the façade of the cathedral. As construction continued into the 21st century, a fire struck the cathedral in 2001, the damage was not fully addressed until a restoration project began in 2005. Today, the cathedral is still under construction.

Website

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is the home of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and it is located on Amsterdam Avenue. The Cathedral is technically incomplete, despite its construction spanning the last three centuries, having begun in 1892, but it is still the fourth-largest Christian church in the world. The Cathedral not only holds weekly services but also hosts many other cultural and civic events for its congregation and the surrounding populous.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Walk past historic buildings, statues, monuments & plaques between Morningside Park & the Hudson, from W. 109th northward; loop back south by the Barnard & Columbia campus (you may not be able to get inside campus without a college ID).

John W. Noble Jr. purchased the lots to build the Manhasset Apartments in 1899 from Jacob D. Butler. Noble was the brother of real estate developer William Noble; the pair joined forces as William Noble &amp; Company and hired architect Joseph Wolf. The original plans were for an eight-story building in two sections topped with a cornice. The building's two entrances were at 301 W. 108th and 300 W. 109th Streets; four composite columns flank entries and support an arched pediment. The exterior is limestone, brick, and terra cotta. The Nobles were heavily in debt - they mortgaged half of the purchase from Butler - and filed for bankruptcy in 1899. Somehow they managed to keep building the luxury apartment building. Jacob D. Butler foreclosed on the mortgage and seized the new building in 1901. William Noble suffered a stroke and died in May 1902.Butler announced plans in February 1902 to expand the building with three additional stories with a mansard roof. Another architectural firm, Janes &amp; Leo, took on the new construction. The interior layout was altered to create more apartments per floor. The original plans were for three or four apartments per floor; the new layout was for six apartments per floor in suites of six to nine rooms. Tenants were finally able to occupy the apartments in 1905.A 1910 guidebook to New York luxury apartments described the Manhasset as a modern eleven-story fireproof apartment house with every modern convenience. Two of the building's four elevators were reserved for tenants while the others were for servants or freight. Butler sold the property in 1910 for $3 million to Realty Assets Company; the street-level spaces along Broadway were then converted into 14 storefronts under the guidance of architect Clarence Shunway. This involved digging the building's foundations four feet deeper. The builders managed to keep the upper floors occupied by renters during all of this upheaval. The new owner of the Manhasset in 1919 was Frank N. Hoffstot, the Pressed Steel Car Company president. A later owner lost the building to bankruptcy in 1932.The building was almost finished being renovated in 1999 when a fire started in a ground-floor restaurant and spread through the building. The Manhasset then contained 134 apartments with about half being rent-regulated and the other half as co-ops. Many residents were able to return to their apartments in three months; the more heavily-damaged north end took longer to be repaired.Some of the recent tenants in the commercial spaces along Broadway include Creative Health, The Pet Market, La Mode Cleaners, and HearUSA.

New York's Manhassat Apartments were constructed in 1899. The Beaux Arts style building features a distinctive French mansard slate roof and is home to numerous apartments, and in 1910, the building was modified to include commercial spaces on the street level on the side of the building facing Broadway. The Manhassat Apartments is a New York City landmark and contributes to the Broadway-Riverside Drive Historic District. The apartments are near the north end of the Bloomingdale neighborhood/ south end of the Morningside Heights neighborhood and historic district. The building is still a residential co-op with commercial spaces along Broadway.

Manhassat Apartments

&nbsp;In the mid-19th century, revolutionaries in central Europe attempted to create independent states out of lands that were part of the Hapsburg Empire. Hungarian journalist and revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth led one of these attempted revolutions. Although he failed, Kossuth became one of the most celebrated foreigners when he toured the United States in 1851 and 1852. Kossuth received a 100-gun salute upon his arrival in New Jersey. He also became the second foreigner to address a joint meeting of Congress. While the leaders of the United States strongly opposed the more radical ideas of European socialists, Kossuth was lauded for his support of both democracy and capitalism. From the perspective of American observers, Kossuth and other 19th century liberals were carrying the ideas of the American Revolution to Europe. In trying to create a homeland for his fellow Hungarians, Americans believed he was also fighting against the retrograde notion that kings had a “divine right” to rule over the people. &nbsp; Like many leaders of America’s revolutionary
generation, Kossuth was a brilliant writer and engaging public speaker. Dubbed
the “noble Magyar,” Kossuth was cheered by American crowds who expected to hear
about the Hungarian leader’s exploits against Catholic monarchs. Kossuth’s
welcome soon wore thin as the rebel leader began to challenge Americans to do
more to support the cause of freedom abroad and in their own nation.
Non-intervention in European affairs had formed the bedrock of American foreign
policy since the nation’s founding. Even more concerning for some political
leaders, Kossuth’s doctrine of universal rights included a condemnation of
slavery. Fillmore feared that Kossuth’s opposition to slavery and request for
American intervention would divide the nation and embarrass his administration.
As a result, the President withdrew Kossuth’s invitation to the White House and
encouraged the Hungarian leader to return to Europe. America’s shifting response to Kossuth demonstrated the
nation’s lack of enthusiasm for some of the more radical ideas he represented. American
socialists won few supporters in 1848 and their converts were generally ignored
as the economy continued to prosper. Although socialists remained on the
political margins in the United States, the revolutions of 1848 marked a
significant turning point. With the publication of Marx’s Communist Manifesto, the idea of socialism and a growing sense of
class consciousness began to win supporters around the globe. 

1848 appears as a turning point where the leadership
of Europe became more willing to consider liberal reforms to the political and
economic system. Monarchs were more willing to acknowledge the right of parliaments
to participate in lawmaking. Meanwhile, parliaments became more willing to
permit middling men to participate in the political system. European reformers
brought an end to the manorial system of land ownership—a system that had kept
peasants in a state of perpetual dependency. In addition, nationalist movements
set the stage for the eventual independence and unification of nations such as
Germany and Italy.&nbsp;

Lajos Kossuth was born into a prominent family but came to believe that his homeland should become independent from the Hapsburg Monarchy. In 1847 Kossuth was elected to the national assembly, the Hungarian Diet. The following year, Kosuth became one of the primary leaders of the Hungarian Revolution which seized power from the ruling monarchs. The following year, the Austrian's nephew Franz Joseph formed an alliance with Russia. The Russian army crushed the newly-independent Hungarian government in 1849. Facing a certain death sentence if he was captured, Lajos Kossuth fled Hungary. Rather than abandon his cause, he toured Europe and the United States in search of supporters. Kossuth arrived in New York in December, 1851 and toured the US for seven months. Although Kossuth was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds along the East Coast, enthusiasm for his cause dwindled quickly. in 1927, Hungarian-American Gezo Barko launched a campaign to create a monument to Kossuth that was enthusiastically supported by Hungarian immigrants. 

Statue of Lajos Kossuth

Columbia University's new campus (after a move from Madison Avenue) was established in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in 1897 on the grounds of a former insane asylum. The Delta Psi fraternity house was the first building constructed in Morningside Heights to house college students. The fraternity is the fourth oldest at Columbia and was organized in 1847 at Columbia College; since the Columbia chapter was the first Delta Psi, it is also known as the Alpha Chapter or the Alpha Club.The Delta Psi alumni organization for all chapters (the St. Anthony Society) hired the architectural firm Wood, Palmer &amp; Hornbostel in 1898 to design their new house in Morningside Heights, sometimes called St. Anthony Hall. One of the organization's alumni, George Carnegie Palmer (1861-1934), was a Delta Psi and a member of Columbia U.'s class of 1883. Palmer, the son of New York banker Nicholas F. Palmer, grew up in Manhattan on affluent Madison Avenue. The other architect responsible for the house's design, Henry Frederick Hornbostel (1867-1961), also was a Columbia U. graduate (1891) and a native New Yorker. Hornbostel studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1894 to 1897. From 1897 to 1900, Hornbostel served as an instructor in Columbia U.'s School of Architecture; he taught advanced students in design. Hornbostel relocated temporarily to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905 and established the new department of architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The two architects designed a stadium for Columbia University in 1907 that was to be built on made land in the Hudson River adjacent to Riverside Park; funding didn't come through and the project was never built. Palmer and Hornbostel won a design competition for the vast temple-like New York State Education Building in Albany in 1907. The pair designed four city halls around 1909 to 1910, for Hartford (CT), Wilmington (DE), Pittsburgh (PA), and Oakland (CA). Hornbostel designed Hell Gate Bridge, a steel arch railroad bridge between Astoria, Queens and Randall's and Wards Islands, Manhattan, built in 1917. While working frequently in Pittsburgh, Hornbostel retained his main residence in New York's Upper West Side at 311 W. 77th Street until moving to Pittsburgh with his wife and children around 1921. The third partner in the firm in 1899, George Edward Wood (born 1862 in New York City), was a graduate of the Columbia School of Architecture (1886) and a member of Zeta Psi fraternity.While the lots along Riverside Drive between W. 115th and 116th Streets were vacant in 1894, the newly-built Delta Psi House soon had a neighbor directly to the south, Columbia Court. The seven-story apartment building was constructed around 1900. Unlike most of the other ivies, Columbia University did not offer dormitories on campus, so apartment houses soon sprung up in Morningside Heights. The twelve-story apartment house to the north of Delta Psi, the Colosseum, wasn't built until 1910. The Delta Psi House is one of only three specifically built in Morningside Heights as a fraternity house and the lone example that retains it original function.

The building at 434 Riverside Drive is the Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter fraternity house and was built for the organization in 1898 or 1899. Only one block from Barnard College and Columbia University, the five-story plus basement building is faced in white limestone and red brick and faces west toward Riverside Park. The building was entered in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1996 for its architectural significance. It is an example of Early French Renaissance design and the work of two prominent architects, George C. Palmer and Henry F. Hornbostel, who were both Columbia U. graduates. The building is one of over 120 contributing to the Broadway-Riverside Drive National Register Historic District, between W. 107 and 119th Streets. It continues to serve as the Delta Psi House.

Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter (St. Anthony Hall)

Arguably the best model of Protestant liberalism in the United States, Riverside Church was conceived in dawning years of the twentieth century. It was a time of debate among Christians, as many of the faithful questioned the competing ideas of fundamentalism and modernism. Christians who were more inclined to accept modernist ideas believed that the faith needed to adapt to the modern world and forge a more&nbsp; activist role in society. The congregation of Park Avenue Baptist Church, of which oil magnate John D. Rockefeller was a member, had such a vision for the church. With financing from the industrialist and the support of liberal pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick, a new, cathedral-like church was designed. The inspiration for the building was Chartres Cathedral in France. Rockfeller purchased land in Morningside Heights, on a prominent location overlooking the Hudson River, where the Upper West Side meets Harlem, in the 1920s, and the building was complete in 1930. The church, which is the tallest in the United States and one of the tallest in the world, is Gothic in style and is characterized by its massive single bell tower, which is roughly the equivalent of a 22-story building in height.&nbsp; Inside the tower is a massive carillon that Rockefeller dedicated in memory of his mother, Laura Spelman Rockefeller. The carillon includes a 20-ton bourdon, which is the largest tuned bell ever cast.&nbsp; From its inception, Riverside was one of the country's most progressive congregations. Its pastors were among the country's most outspoken proponents of social justice. Over the years, Riverside has been a center of activism and supports a number of ministries, including an immigrants' rights ministry and an HIV-AIDS ministry. In addition to Fosdick, a number of other progressive ministers have occupied the pulpit at Riverside, including William Sloane Coffin, who was a freedom rider during the civil rights movement and an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam. One of the church's most significant moments came in 1967, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at Riverside. The speech condemned the Vietnam War, which King saw as immoral because of the harm done to Vietnamese peasants and also because it was a war, he believed, that was disproportionately fought by the poor and minorities. The "Riverside Speech," as it came to be known, is one of King's most famous, but one that led to widespread criticism of him among Americans who felt it was unpatriotic. In addition to Dr. King, Riverside has hosted many other notable speakers, including Cesar Chavez, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Deitrich Bonhoffer. Riverside Church is open for tours and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Completed in 1930, New York’s Riverside Church was modeled on Chartres Cathedral in France. The interdenominational church was the work of industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockfeller and the minister Harry Emerson Fosdick, with both men envisioning a church open to any person of the Christian faith. Located on a prominent spot overlooking the Hudson River, the church is the tallest in the United States and one of the tallest in the world. The church is known for its activism and has a congregation representing more than forty ethnic groups. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Riverside Church

Ulysses S.&nbsp;Grant had an enormous impact on the Civil War and continued to serve and contribute to the progress of America after the war. Grant was honored with this impressive&nbsp;memorial commemorating his achievements and his service&nbsp;to his country.&nbsp;The Grant Monument Association was established and they immediately drew support from citizens. Businesses and prominent individuals made significant donations to the organization. The organization also received small donations from individuals from all over the world. Donations came from about 90,000 people and totaled to about 600,000 dollars. After much debate over the location and architect, the GMA decide to build in New York City and hired John T. Brady to design the memorial. Construction began during the summer of 1891. After many delays and complications, the memorial was completed in 1897.


















On April 27, 1939, the memorial was rededicated after major restoration was completed. The memorial had started to decay during the 1900’s and badly needed repair.&nbsp;A large amount of money was raised, resulting in a very successful restoration. Many improvements of function and aesthetic were made. The General Grant National Memorial is again a beautiful reminder of the importance that Grant’s service was to America.&nbsp;

The General Grant National Memorial is located in upper Manhatten on Riverside Drive. The memorial is also referred to as Grant's Tomb. Ulysses S. Grant was laid to rest at this location after his death. According to Grant's wish, his wife Julia was laid beside him. The memorial celebrates the life and accomplishments of General Grant during and after the civil war. General Grant played an integral part in the ending of the civil war. He received a deserved honor with the dedication of this tomb.      

General Grant National Memorial 

Before the Barnard College campus was built in Morningside Heights, the land was across the street from the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum grounds. By 1894, the future footprint of the first three interconnected buildings on the campus (now "Milbank Hall") was undeveloped except for a wooden frame building near the northeast corner/ partly within the future footprint of W. 120th Street. The old alignment of Bloomingdale Road passed through the northwest corner of the future Milbank Hall, and all of the land (except the two north corners of the building) were owned by New York Hospital (the owners of the asylum).The three original buildings on the Barnard College campus on Morningside Heights form a U-shape with a courtyard open to the south toward W. 119th Street (now closed to traffic). They were the first group of buildings in New York City specifically built for a women's college. The architectural trim on Milbank Hall is limestone and terra cotta on the first story; most of the second to fourth-story trim is terra cotta glazed white to resemble limestone. The entrances to each of the three original buildings are inscribed with the original name above the doorway. The most elaborate entryway is into the original Milbank Hall on W. 120th Street, topped by a balcony with four two-story columns/ pilasters supporting the inscription under four urns.A greenhouse was constructed on the roof of Milbank Hall in 1998, forming a fifth floor. The Arthur Ross Greenhouse adds over 2,000 square feet under glass with over 400 plant species. The greenhouse replaced an earlier one built on campus in 1928 and is used for STEM research. As of the fall term 2021, students have returned to campus at Barnard and tours are offered in person of the exteriors only of buildings; virtual tours are available online (link re: tours below). The first floor of Milbank Hall includes the Minor Latham Playhouse and the fourth floor holds Kreuger Lecture Hall.

Barnard College was formed in 1888 as the "women's annex" to Columbia College and is now an undergraduate college of Columbia University. Columbia relocated to the Morningside Heights neighborhood in 1897 with Barnard adjacent to the west, across Broadway. Three of the original buildings of Barnard College - Milbank (1897), Fiske 1897), and Brinckerhoff (1898) - are now collectively called Milbank Hall. The three interconnected buildings are four stories tall on a raised basement. The buildings face Broadway (Brinckerhoff), W. 120th Street (Milbank), or Claremont Avenue (Fiske). The buildings are Italian Renaissance style with Colonial-inspired features and were designed by architect Charles A. Rich.  Milbank Hall is constructed of dark red brick accented in limestone or terra cotta with a basement covered in rusticated limestone. In 2003, Milbank Hall was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places.

Milbank Hall, Barnard College

Following the Americans' loss at the Battle of Long Island, General George Washington's men struggled to hold their ground against General William Howe's army. On September 15, 1776, the British arrived at Kipp's Bay, prompting Washington to relocate his men to Harlem Heights. The next day, Captain Thomas Knowlton and his group of rangers descend into a lower plateau known as Hollow Way on Washington's orders. There, the group encounter British forces, leading Knowlton to evacuate his men away from the scene while Washington pushed forward.Washington ordered his men to continue forward in an effort to bait the British onto the northern plateau. His plan was successful, allowing a second force to sever potential British reinforcements from reaching the southern plateau. Upon realizing their now-tenuous situation, the isolated British began to withdraw as American reinforcements arrived. Washington's men engaged the British, and Knowlton was killed during that fight. After about two hours of battle, British forces were running low on ammunition and isolated from their supply lines, forcing them to withdraw. Eventually, the British received reinforcements, negating Washington's temporary advantage and forcing him to withdraw his men. Allthough unable to fully press his advantage, this event marked the first American victory in the New York Campaign-a series of battles and skirmishes that saw the British quickly take control of North America's leading port city.  The victory at Harlem Heights bought time for the rest of Washington's army to make a more orderly withdrawal from New York so they could fortify Fort Washington and Fort Lee. As a result, Washington's army was able to offer a stronger defense when the two armies met again at the Battle of White Plains.

The Battle of Harlem Heights was a minor engagement that took place during the early phases of the Revolutionary War. Following their rapid defeat and panicked retreat from Long Island, this successful rearguard action helped slow the British advance and offered a critical morale boost to American troops. On September 16, 1776, General George Washington led the outnumbered Americans against the advancing British forces under General Sir William Howe. The battle was the first American victory of the New York Campaign. The victory was only temporary, as Washington's troops were still vastly outnumbered and forced to continue their retreat. The battle also resulted in the death of one of Washington's most competent officers, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton. Despite these setbacks, the battle served as a boon to American morale and allowed the bulk of Washington's army to evade capture so they could continue their war for independence. 

Battle of Harlem Heights Plaque at Columbia University

Columbia's Alma Mater statue was commissioned in honor of Robert Goelet, a member of the class of 1860 who helped finance the statue. Although the statue is unique to Columbia University, several other universities have a statue named “Alma Mater” on their campus. The term means “nourishing mother” in Latin, and was the motto of the University of Bologna, “Alma Mater Studiorum.” This translates to “nourishing mother of studies.” This motto is the first known connection of the term “Alma Mater” to the university from which one graduated.The statue includes the author's depiction of a matronly teacher seated in a chair with symbolizing learning and wisdom, the laurel wreath upon the head symbolizing fame or victory, a scepter topped with a crown, and an owl, a symbol of wisdom, hidden in the folds of the statue’s robes.In fact, a local legend at the time of the statue's dedication suggested that any student who found the owl would marry a woman from Barnard, a sister women’s college, or that the first freshman to find the owl would graduate as valedictorian of his class. This piece of folklore dissipated as more women attended the university. In 1928, the crown that tops the scepter was stolen and later returned after the university offered a reward. Some other pranks involving the statue even spread to other schools. In 1984, the statue’s entire scepter was stolen by visiting students from Cornell University, and it was returned covered in Cornell pennants after two months of absence. The statue was a symbol of the university, and as such, it has been the center of numerous protests against the university’s administration, especially during the Vietnam War. In 1970, a bomb was planted on the statue. When the bomb exploded, a portion of the statue’s throne was destroyed. Eight years later, the statue was removed for renovation, moving from the place of its dedication for the first time since its unveiling. The statue was rededicated that same year and remains a symbol of Columbia University.

The Alma Mater statue at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York has been a symbol of the university ever since its dedication in 1903.  Harriette W. Goelet commissioned Daniel Chester French to design the statue in honor of her husband, Robert Goelet, who graduated from the University with the class of 1860.  The bronze statue rests on a marble and granite base in front of Columbia University’s Low Library.  

Alma Mater Statue at Columbia University

The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, a branch of the New York Hospital, was established in the late 1810s on one of the highest spots on the island, seven miles north of the developed part of Manhattan. A farm of about 55 acres in "Manhattanville" (now Morningside Heights), east of Bloomingdale Road, was purchased to build the new asylum. The farm property replaced the original "Lunatic Asylum," a stone structure constructed in Lower Manhattan in 1808 near the public hospital that had opened in 1791. The asylum housed 67 patients in 1808 and was headed by Dr. Archibald Bruce. The cornerstone of the new building on the farmland was laid in 1818 and, in mid-1821, the first 52 patients moved in from the old asylum. The new building was planned by one of its directors, Thomas C. Taylor. Laban Gardner was the first Superintendent, and his wife was the first Matron. Dr. James Eddy was the first Resident Physician; the first Attending Physician, required to visit teach patient twice per week, was Dr. John Neilson. The state spent $200,000 in land and building costs for the three-story plus basement, red New Jersey sandstone structure. The building was organized with a central portion for the superintendent, his family, physicians, and other staff. Wings on either end were reserved for male or female patients. The institution received $10,000 annually from the New York State Legislature; the institution was the only one of its kind in New York State at the time. Population was capped at 200 residents. Treatment involved "agricultural and mechanical occupations" with residents encouraged to read, draw, or exercise in the sunshine of the gardens and deer-filled meadows. Two more three-story residential buildings were added to the asylum in its first decades: one for men in 1829 and one for women in 1837. By the mid-1840s, other outbuildings on the grounds included a large stone barn (with stables and a carriage house), a greenhouse or conservatory containing 700 plants, and an icehouse.To make the living circumstances for wealthy, male mental patients at the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum more pleasant, William H. Macy (no, not the actor) donated funds to build a standalone house on the grounds. Macy (1805-1887) was a former bank president who served as President of the New York Hospital and the Bloomingdale Asylum. "Macy Villa" is a three-story brick building that served its purpose while part of the asylum, but was not as well suited to being an academic building after becoming the property of Columbia University. Early occupants of the campus building were athletes in the Columbia Rowing Committee, who planned to move into rooms in Macy Villa on March 15, 1895. The training crews also moved into the house for the season in 1896 and 1897.The new campus of Columbia U. opened in October 1897, while construction of new buildings was still underway. Undergraduate students of Columbia College complained in 1898 about being relegated to Macy Hall, while the graduate students of Columbia University were afforded spacious, newly-built buildings with separate libraries for graduate schools of law, engineering, and other disciplines. Macy Hall was described in a local newspaper as "a three-story, old red brick building with small, badly-arranged rooms" in the southeast corner of Columbia's new grounds. A professor deemed Macy Hall to be "conspicuous by its insignificance and suggestive of indifference or disdain...not dignified...not worthy of the college, its history, its reputation, its present high state of efficiency." Within Macy Hall, courses in Greek, Latin, and mathematics were taught, and the college dean, Dean Van Amridge, had office space. Other undergraduate departments were scattered about the campus in various buildings. Undergraduates complained of having no room to congregate, unlike the smoking room reserved for Law School men, and called for construction of a new College Hall. An undergraduate student likened their situation on campus to being "homeless outcasts."The building was renamed several more times, to College Hall, East Hall, and finally to Buell Hall in 1983 to honor alumnus and donor Temple Hoyne Buell.

Buell Hall, the brick building to the southeast of Columbia University's Low Library. is the oldest building on the Morningside Heights campus and is actually older than the campus. Columbia College bought the land for their new campus in Morningside Heights from New York Hospital in 1892. Prior to then, the property was the site of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, a hospital for the mentally ill. "Macy Villa" was built in 1885 to house wealthy male patients in more comfortable surroundings, apart from the general population of the asylum. Macy Villa was moved uphill to this spot from nearby in 1905 to make room for a new campus building (Kent Hall); the house's front porch was not rebuilt. Since 1977, Buell Hall has housed the Maison Francaise, founded at Columbia in 1913 as the first center for study of French civilization and literature to be established at an American university. Offices of several architectural institutes are in Buell Hall as well.

Morningside Heights, Manhattan Historic Walking Tour, Barnard-Columbia Neighborhood

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information