The James Dwight Dana House, also known as the Dana House, is a historic 19th-century

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

house at 24

Hillhouse Avenue Hillhouse Avenue is a street in New Haven, Connecticut, famous for its many nineteenth century mansions, including the president's house at Yale University. Both Charles Dickens and Mark Twain have described it as "the most beautiful street in Amer ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. This building, designed by New Haven architect Henry Austin, was the home of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

professor

James Dwight Dana James Dwight Dana FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcanic activity, and the origin and structure of continent ...

(1813–95). It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965 for its association with Dana, who produced the first published works emphasizing that the study of geology was a much broader discipline than the examination of individual rocks. and

Description and history

The Dana House consists of three roughly rectangular painted brick sections, stories in height, with a low-pitch hip roof. The main block, apparently adapted from a stock pattern by New Haven architect Henry Austin, has a three-bay front facade, with a single-story porch extending across its width, supported by turned posts. The building's roof has typical Italianate wide eaves, with a wooden soffit and corbelled brickwork arches underneath. A square cupola rises above the main block. Additions on 1896 and 1905 extended the house to the north and east, stylistically sympathetic to the main block. The interior has retained much of its original handiwork. The house was built in 1848-49 for

and his bride Henrietta Silliman by her father,

Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at Yale College, the first person to use the process of fractional distillation ...

, one of Yale's first professors of science. The design by Austin is not particularly elaborate or individually distinctive, as evidenced by the existence of two similar houses in the region. The house was purchased by Yale in 1962, and is currently home to its Department of Statistics & Data Science. It was renovated by the university in 1996. The house was designated a

in 1965, and listed on 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 ...

in 1966. It is a

contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

in the

Hillhouse Avenue Historic District Hillhouse Avenue is a street in New Haven, Connecticut, famous for its many nineteenth century mansions, including the president's house at Yale University. Both Charles Dickens and Mark Twain have described it as "the most beautiful street in Ame ...

, which was defined in 1985 to extend south of Trumbull Street to include this property. and James Dwight Dana education in geology, in addition to his studies with Professor Silliman, extended to the four-year

United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

(1838–42), in which Dana served as the staff geologist and mineralogist, and exposed him to a wide-ranging variety of geological formations and minerals. In addition to numerous reports and articles on the material from this expedition, Dana in 1862 produced the ''Manual of Geology'', the first major work to describe the study of geology as an investigation of the processes that produced the landforms and minerals we see. More than just describing how individual types of rocks and minerals forms, he expanded the view to include descriptions of how major landforms such as mountains and valleys formed.

References

External links

Dana House 1996 Exterior Renovation, Yale University Department of Statistics
{{Yale Houses in New Haven, Connecticut Yale University buildings Houses completed in 1849 Houses completed in 1868 Historic district contributing properties in Connecticut Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in New Haven, Connecticut 1849 establishments in Connecticut Italianate architecture in Connecticut Silliman family

Description and history

See also

References

External links