Bailey Hall is the largest

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, seating 1324 people. It is named for

Liberty Hyde Bailey Liberty Hyde Bailey (March 15, 1858 – December 25, 1954) was an American horticulturist and reformer of rural life. He was cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.Makers of American Botany, Harry Baker Humphrey, Ronald Press ...

, first dean of what is now Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; it was originally built by New York State for the use of agriculture students, but also filled a need for a large auditorium for the whole university. The building was constructed in 1912 according to the

Greek Revival architecture The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

design of Buffalo architect

Edward Brodhead Green Edward Brodhead Green (May 10, 1855 – February 2, 1950), very often referred to as E. B. Green, was a major American architect from New York State. Early life Green was born in Utica, New York on May 10, 1855. He attended Cornell Universi ...

, an 1878 Cornell graduate. It is shaped as an amphitheatre, with a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

wrapping around its south side, and monumental stairs leading up to 11-foot main doors. Bailey Hall was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1984.

Recent renovations

As originally configured, Bailey seated 1,948; one wag described it as "acoustics by God, seats by Torquemada," referring to its wooden seats and severely raked floor. In 2006, the building reopened after a major rehabilitation which brought it up to modern

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permission ...

s and made it

handicapped-accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

, albeit at the cost of several hundred seats of audience capacity. The road and small parking lot immediately in front of Bailey were converted into a pedestrian plaza which was opened to the public in 2007. The flagstones of the plaza are hewn from

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * felds ...

, similar to the material used to construct the

Stone Row A stone row or stone alignment is a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes, usually dating from the later Neolithic or Bronze Age.Power (1997), p.23 Rows may be in ...

on the Arts Quad. Some of the stones were thermally treated to alter their colors to achieve a cosmetic effect. The benches ringing the plaza extend to 30 feet in length, each having been hewn from a single

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

. A fountain carved from local stone into a natural, sloping shape invoking

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

's gorges is featured on the southern edge of the plaza.

References

Cornell University buildings School buildings completed in 1912 Tourist attractions in Tompkins County, New York University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) 1912 establishments in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Tompkins County, New York Green & Wicks buildings {{TompkinsCountyNY-NRHP-stub