South Middle College – Old Campus

South Middle College — today known as Connecticut Hall — was completed in 1752 as Yale’s principal brick dormitory after the earlier wooden College House had become overcrowded. Built largely to plans borrowed from Harvard’s Massachusetts Hall, it anchored what would become Old Brick Row and originally housed nearly 100 student rooms beneath its gambrel roof. Over time, the building became known as South Middle College as Yale added other “colleges” of similar style to the Row. Though the rest of Old Brick Row was demolished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, alumni advocacy saved South Middle, making it the only survivor of the original Old Brick Row, which was the earliest New Haven campus plan. The college would come to be renovated (sometimes thoroughly) over the decades and centuries, resulting in a building that today looks strikingly different enough than it did earlier in its life.  Used as a residence for nearly two centuries, it later shifted to administrative and academic purposes and today houses Yale’s Department of Philosophy and the Faculty Room.