Osborn Hall – Old Campus

Osborn Hall, built in 1890 along College Street at the edge of Old Campus, was a richly detailed Romanesque-style classroom building funded by alumnus Charles J. Osborn ’66. Designed by architect Bruce Price, it quickly became one of the most recognizable façades facing the New Haven Green, with its arched windows, heavy masonry, and prominent corner tower. Despite its prominence, the building proved poorly suited to modern classroom needs due in part to its proximity to the heavily-trafficked College and Chapel Streets, and by the 1920s Yale sought to replace it as part of the university’s shift toward the new Collegiate Gothic plan. Osborn Hall was demolished in 1926—after just 36 years—to make way for Bingham Hall and the reconfiguration of the Old Campus perimeter. Its short life left a surprising imprint, remembered today largely through period photographs and postcards like these.