Phelp’s Hall, designed to resemble a massive Tudor gatehouse, was built in 1895 as the grand entry to Yale’s Old Campus. Designed by Charles C. Haight, it was the last structure built along the row of Yale buildings facing New Haven Green, which was once occupied by the Old Brick Row. With the exception of Connecticut Hall, the earliest buildings of the Old Campus, including Brick Row, were replaced in the later nineteenth century, with the Gothic Revival style now dominating the campus.
Phelps Hall, Yale University (1895)
Who is Mr. Phelps?
Yes who was PHELPS?
William Lyon Phelps was a author, graduated from Yale.
In William Lyon Phelps’ Will he left $50,000 to be given from money that was left to him by his father (John Jay Phelps) and instructed the executor to add up to an additional $50,000 to build a building that Yale deemed. It was to be known as The Phelps Fefectory, Dormitory, or Hall. William Lyon Phelps died in 1894.
Have seen this beautiful building and am proud to be a member of the long line of Phelps who have graduated from Yale. My father was Denison Shoemaker Phelps and graduated in 1933.
Close – William Walter Phelps.
See the Estate of William Walter Phelps, Bergen County, NJ Probate records, Book or Volume 8, Page 241.
As another Phelps who went to Yale, (Public Health ‘95), I’m also proud of the long association between Yale and the Phelps family.