The Colony

Completed in 1898 and located at 17 Hillhouse Avenue, The Colony served as the residence hall of Berzelius, the first secret society founded at the Sheffield Scientific School. Designed by Henry Bacon and James Brite, the building stood just up the street from the society’s separate meeting hall. Berzelius used the Colony as its residence until the early 1930s, when the property was sold to Yale even as the society itself continued operating independently. For several decades afterward, Yale repurposed the structure as both a dormitory and administrative space. The building was demolished in 1969, and replaced with a modern facility that first housed the University health center, and today serves as space for the engineering school, leaving The Colony remembered mainly through photographs of Hillhouse Avenue’s earlier era.