Leet Oliver Memorial Hall

Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is a Gothic revival campus building made of white limestone (1). It was built in 1908 for Yale University as part of an initiative to increase laboratory buildings on campus. At that time, most of the surrounding land on Hillhouse avenue belonged to the Sheffield Estate, evident from the presence of the magnificent Joseph Sheffield House down the street from Leet Oliver Memorial Hall (2). Today, the building is in use by Yale’s Mathematics Department and contains offices and classrooms. It also houses the Yale Mathematics Library on the top floor. The name is often abbreviated to “LOM.”

The building has been under the ownership and use of Yale University since being built in 1908.

Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is built on land formerly belonging to the Sheffield Estate and the history of LOM, along with the Sheffield Scientific School, is closely linked to that of the Sheffield Estate. The Sheffield Estate used to take up much of the land on Hillhouse avenue, but as Yale and the Sheffield Scientific School expanded, they bought up the land from the Sheffield family (2).

The Sheffield Estate used to contain the Sheffield Mansion. The Sheffield Mansion was originally built in 1836, by Ithiel Town, who used the building to store his large collection of architectural books (the largest such collection in America at the time). The building was an architectural beauty: a Greek Revival House reminiscent of Monticello. In 1957, Henry Austin heavily remodeled the building for Joseph Sheffield, giving it Italianate elements. When LOM was built in 1908, the Sheffield Mansion still stood next door. It remained there through the construction of Dunham Laboratory in 1912, but was razed in 1957 to enable renovations and extensions to be made to Dunham Laboratory (2). By this time, the land on Hillhouse avenue surrounding LOM all belonged to Yale University. Today, every building on the street except for St. Mary’s Church is owned by Yale University (6).

There is some confusion on Sanborn maps and city atlas’ from the time with names of buildings. The building next door to LOM is often labeled “Biological Laboratory.” However, no record exists of this building, and it is in the same shape and location as other buildings labeled as the Sheffield Mansion (9, 10, 11).

Leet Oliver Memorial Hall was built with money donated by Mrs. James Brown Oliver in memory of her son, Daniel Leet Oliver. Daniel Leet Oliver passed away in June 1907, right after his junior year at Yale, while driving back from a Yale-Harvard ball game with some friends. He is buried in his hometown of Pittsburgh (4, 7).

The building was part of Yale’s initiative to increase laboratory and scientific buildings on campus. Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is one of nine laboratory buildings that were built on Hillhouse avenue in the first quarter of the 20th century. Also among them are Mason Laboratory and Dunham Laboratory. From its inception, Leet Oliver Memorial Hall was primarily a classroom building rather than a scientific laboratory, but it was nonetheless part of Yale’s expanding science curriculum. The building was in use by Sheffield Scientific School, Yale’s school of science and engineering. Sheffield was originally very small and poor, with annual tuition costing only $30, but the construction of these new buildings enable Sheffield to increase it’s enrollment by 1000 students by 1913 (2).

Throughout the first half of the 19th century the Sheffield Scientific School gradually dissolved, as Bachelor of Science degrees were transferred to Yale College and graduate students began to cluster towards the School of Engineering. In 1945, the Sheffield Scientific School officially became a part of Yale College. Nevertheless, Leet Oliver Memorial Hall remained a scientific building through this transition (2, 8).

Today, Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is home to the Yale Mathematics Department. It contains offices, classrooms, and the Yale Mathematics Library.

Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is located on the lower block of Hillhouse avenue, a tree-lined street containing primarily Yale University buildings of diverse and beautiful styles. Charles Dickens described the street as “the most beautiful street in America.” The second block of Hillhouse avenue belongs to the Hillhouse historical district, and this beauty and history is evident in the buildings neighboring LOM as well as in LOM itself (6).

Leet Oliver Memorial Hall is built below street level, as the ground slopes up steeply in this area. The Farmington Canal trail, a popular path for runners, bikers, and walkers, passes underneath Hillhouse Avenue next to LOM. Dunham Laboratory, another Gothic style laboratory building, lies to the left of Leet Oliver Memorial hall and is connected to LOM by a glass bridge from the fourth floor of Dunham to the third floor of LOM. No exact date for the construction of the bridge has been found, but it must have been built after 1958, when Dunham Laboratory was renovated and expanded.