Bailey Hall is the largest

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, an

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

university in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. The auditorium seats 1,300 people, and it is named for

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

, the first dean of what is now Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

History

20th century

Bailey Hall was constructed in 1912, according to the

Greek Revival architecture Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

design of

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

-based 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 and education Green was born in Utica, New York, on May 10, 1855. He attended Corn ...

, an 1878 graduate of Cornell University. 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 cu ...

wrapping around its south side, and monumental stairs leading up to 11-foot main doors. It was built by

New York state New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

and initially intended for use by Cornell University agriculture students, but it also filled the need for a large auditorium that could be used by the entire university. As originally configured, Bailey seated 1,948. It was described as having "acoustics by God, seats by

Torquemada Torquemada may refer to: People * Juan de Torquemada (cardinal) (1388–1468), Spanish cardinal and ecclesiastical writer * Tomás de Torquemada (1420–1498), prominent leader of the Spanish Inquisition * Antonio de Torquemada (c. 1507� ...

," a referce to its wooden seats and severely raked floor. In 1984, Bailey Hall was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

21st century

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 construction objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permis ...

s and made it handicapped-accessible, 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 natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

, similar to the material used to construct the

Stone Row A stone row or stone alignment is a linear arrangement of 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 individual or groupe ...

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 300 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 United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

. 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

External links

"Bailey Hall
at

1912 establishments in New York (state) Cornell University buildings Green & Wicks buildings National Register of Historic Places in Tompkins County, New York 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) {{TompkinsCountyNY-NRHP-stub