Dwight Hall – Old Campus

The building that now houses Dwight Hall at 67 High Street was completed in 1846 as the Yale College Library, the first Gothic Revival structure on Yale’s campus. When the library moved to the new Sterling Memorial Library in 1930, the old building was renamed Dwight Hall and adapted for the university’s growing center of public service, with second stories added to each wing during the transition. Over the decades, the Hall and Chapel served as a campus anchor through moments as varied as World War II military training, the Civil Rights Movement—including a 1959 visit by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and the student organizing of May Day 1970. After a full renovation in 2017–2018, the nearly 200-year-old building again demonstrated its flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it temporarily became a campus testing facility and quarantine-meal pickup site. Today, 67 High Street stands as one of Yale’s oldest surviving buildings and the longtime home of today’s student-led service efforts.

Prior to when 67 High Street assumed the name Dwight Hall, another (now demolished) building on Old Campus was known as Dwight Hall.  Built in 1886, the Old Dwight Hall served as Yale’s new YMCA headquarters, rising out of the Muscular Christianity movement that swept American campuses in the late 19th century.