Harkness Tower

Harkness Tower was completed in 1922 as the campanile of the newly built Memorial Quadrangle (the complex that later became Branford and Saybrook Colleges), funded by Anna M. Harkness in memory of her son Charles William Harkness ’83. Designed by James Gamble Rogers and deliberately weathered to look medieval, it was for a time the tallest free-standing stone tower in the world. Its 54 bells make up the Yale Memorial Carillon, installed in 1922, massively enlarged in 1966, and now one of the most famous university carillons in the United States. The tower became the defining vertical emblem of Yale’s “Collegiate Gothic” era, establishing the campus skyline and Yale’s distinctive architectural identity for the 20th century.