The University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

located in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

. Listed in 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 ...

since 1984, it includes a number of historic buildings that were constructed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The district represents the oldest extant section of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

campus.

Eddy Hall, 1886

:Architect: LeRoy Buffington The oldest building within the district, as well as the oldest extant building on the Minneapolis campus. Originally built as the Mechanic Arts building, it was designed by Minneapolis architect LeRoy S. Buffington. Executed in the Queen Anne mode, the building is three stories in height on a high basement; a square tower at the northwest corner dominates the entry. The building is constructed of red brick with red sandstone trim. It is essentially rectangular in plan. Dominant features include the multi-gabled roof, high double-hung windows, panels of patterned brick, and iron cresting with

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

on the tower. Erected at a cost of $30,000 in 1886, the building received a $10,000 addition in 1903. The building originally housed the Mathematics, Drawing, Civil-Municipal-Structural Engineering departments, as well as testing laboratories. The Mechanic Arts building was eventually renamed Eddy Hall in honor of Henry Turner Eddy, former professor of Engineering and Mathematics and later Dean of the Graduate School.

Music Education, 1888 (demolished 2010)

:Architect: Warren H. Hayes Originally the Student Christian Association building. It once housed the Child Welfare and Music Education departments. On July 8, 2009 the University of Minnesota Board of Regents moved to demolish the building. According to the Regents, the excessive cost of renovation was the main deterrent against any reuse option. Demolition commenced in May 2010 with an expected cost of $432,000.

Pillsbury Hall, 1889

:Architects: LeRoy Buffington with

Harvey Ellis Harvey Ellis (October 17, 1852, Rochester, New York – January 2, 1904, Syracuse, New York) was an architect, perspective renderer, painter and furniture designer. He worked in Rochester, New York; Utica, New York; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneap ...

Originally known as Science Hall, it was renamed in honor of Governor John S. Pillsbury during construction. Harvey Ellis, Buffington's assistant, was responsible for the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanes ...

details of the design. Though Ellis was inspired by the aesthetic of

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

, the building also contains elements of the

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped ...

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, and Victorian styles. The building is built with two different colors of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

. The buff-colored sandstone is from quarries near

Banning State Park Banning State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, stretched along of the Kettle River near Sandstone in Pine County. The centerpiece of the park is of churning rapids, some up to Class IV. The daring kayakers and canoeists who shoot B ...

, while the red sandstone is from the Fond du Lac formation. The clay tile roof and copper eaves serve to protect the sandstone from the infiltration of water, and they also add to the appearance of the building. Reflecting its earthen architectural elements, the building housed the Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth Sciences until 2017. The building is currently slated for rehabilitation, after which it will house the university's English department.

Pattee Hall, 1889

:Architect: J. Walter Stevens The first

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent L ...

building, itself founded in 1888. The Law School later moved to Fraser Hall and then to Mondale Hall. Today the building houses the Institute on Community Integration. It is named after William S. Pattee, first dean of the Law School.

Nicholson Hall, 1890

:Architects: LeRoy Buffington with

Originally built as a chemistry laboratory, until that department moved to

Northrop Mall The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

. It later served as the men's student union until

Coffman Memorial Union Coffman Memorial Union (commonly known as Coffman Union or simply Coffman) is a student union on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Situated near the Mississippi River, Coffman anchors the south end of Northrop M ...

opened in 1940. Nicholson Hall is named after Edward E. Nicholson, Dean of Student Affairs from 1917 to 1941. The building was recently rehabilitated with $24 million of structural improvements and interior updates. While much of the building's

exterior was restored during the project, new

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

motifs were introduced throughout the interior. The building reopened to the public in January 2006 and is currently used for a number of classroom and administrative purposes.

Wulling Hall, 1892

:Architects: Allen Stem and Charles Reed Originally built as Medical Hall, it later served as the Pharmacy building. Today it houses the Office of Classroom Management.

Burton Hall, 1894

:Architects: LeRoy Buffington and

Charles Sumner Sedgwick Charles Sumner SedgwickIn some sources, his name has been incorrectly presented as Charles Sedgewick (1856 – March 12, 1922) was an American architect based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Personal life He was born in New York State. His wife, ...

Named in honor of university president Miriam Burton, it was the main library building on campus until

Walter Library Walter Library is an academic library located on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It currently houses the College of Science and Engineering Library and Dean's Office, the Digital Technology and Digita ...

opened in 1924. Before Burton Hall was built, the library collection was housed in Old Main. A series of fires in Old Main convinced the Board of Regents that a new, fireproof building was needed. President

William Watts Folwell William Watts Folwell (February 14, 1833 – September 17, 1929) was an educator, writer and historian who was the first president of the University of Minnesota. Biography Folwell was born in 1833 in Romulus, New York. He attended Hobart Coll ...

first consulted with LeRoy Buffington on a library design, but the Regents overruled him. After much debate between the Regents and the faculty, the design was eventually finalized. In an act of compromise, the exterior was designed by Buffington in a severe

Greek Revival 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 a ...

style and the interior was designed by Charles Sedgwick in a rather ornate Victorian style. The building originally included an assembly hall which doubled as a chapel. The building is currently home to the College of Education and Human Development.

Armory, 1896

:Architect: Charles Aldrich Originally built for athletics and military drills, it is now home to the university's

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in al ...

program.

Wesbrook Hall, 1898 (demolished 2011)

:Architect: Frederick Corser Originally the Laboratory of Medical Science. It became the home of the Dentistry department in 1912 and later served as the location of the Department of Writing Studies. Wesbrook Hall was demolished in August 2011 as part of the

Northrop Auditorium Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium (commonly known as Northrop Auditorium or simply Northrop) is a performing arts venue at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is named in honor of Cyrus Northrop, the university's second presi ...

renovation project.

Jones Hall, 1901

:Architect: Charles Aldrich The first home of the Physics department. The Beaux-Arts structure was rehabilitated in 2005 to provide updated mechanical systems and

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, T ...

access. Historic features such as

stair tread A stair tread is the horizontal portion of a set of stairs on which a person walks. The tread can be composed of wood, metal, plastic, or other materials. In residential settings, treads can be covered in carpeting. Stair treads can come in non-sli ...

s and banisters, paneled doors, arched ceilings, and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

facade were preserved during the project. The building is now home to the Freshman Admissions Welcome Center as well as the College of Liberal Arts language lab.

Child Development, 1903

:Architect:

Clarence H. Johnston Sr. Clarence Howard Johnston Sr. (August 26, 1859 – December 29, 1936) was an American architect who practiced in the US state of Minnesota during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Specializing in domestic, religious, and public architecture, he ser ...

Originally built as the Mines Building until damaged by fire in 1913. The building was later used for the University High School and ultimately the Child Development Center.

Shevlin Hall, 1906

:Architect: Ernest Kennedy Built on the site of Old Main, the first building on campus. Shevlin Hall served as the women's student union until

opened in 1940. The building, a gift from Minneapolis lumberman Thomas H. Shevlin (1852-1912), named in honor of his wife Alice Ann Hall Shevlin (1864-1910), currently houses the Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences department.

Folwell Hall, 1907

:Architect:

Designed in the Jacobethan Revival style by Minnesota State Architect

Clarence H. Johnston Clarence Howard Johnston Sr. (August 26, 1859 – December 29, 1936) was an American architect who practiced in the US state of Minnesota during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Specializing in domestic, religious, and public architecture, he se ...

, it was built to house departments displaced after the burning of Old Main in 1904. These included the Pedagogy, Oratory, and Psychology departments, as well as the Alumni Magazine, German Museum, Gopher Yearbook, and

Minnesota Daily The ''Minnesota Daily'' is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota, published Monday and Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is currently the la ...

. It is now home to a majority of the university's foreign language departments. The building, which received an extensive rehabilitation in 2012, is considered one of the most elaborate on campus. Its exterior features carved brick detailing,

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

, parapets, gargoyles, and many

chimneys A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...

. Interior features include polished

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

hallways, fireplaces, and ornate

staircases Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

. Folwell Hall is named in honor of

, the first president of the University of Minnesota.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District University of Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis Romanesque Revival architecture in Minnesota University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota