St. Anthony Hall

St. Anthony Hall, completed in 1913 and designed by Charles C. Haight, is the current home of the Yale society known as St. Anthony Hall (1). The building is St. Anthony Hall’s third building and second on the current site (2). The building sits on the northeast corner of College and Wall Streets, with large tower on the corner that is flanked on each side by lower-rise sections of the building. Frederick W. Vanderbilt donated funds for the building and it was constructed in the Late Gothic Revival out of cut limestone in order to match the two Sheffield School dormitories that neighbor it on both College and Wall Streets, which were also donated by Vanderbilt. It was, at the time of its building, the “most expensive and elaborate secret society building in the United States” according to the New York Times (3).

 The original building consisted of both of what are now 483 College Street and 493 College Street, but 493, which held most of the fraternity living quarters, was sold to the University in 1945 in order to defray maintenance costs after the University banned students from living in fraternities and societies (4). Today, St. Anthony Hall is home to the day-to-day operations of the society as well as many special events, including a fall lecture series and the annual Pump and Slipper Ball.

Members of St. Anthony Hall lived in the building until 1946 and US Military officers lived and worked in the building during World War II

The Anthony Trust Association purchased the land where St. Anthony Hall sits today circa 1893 (11). In the same year, a Richardsonian brownstone building designed by Heins and La Farge was built on the property as the second building for St. Anthony Hall, which had its original building at 43 College Street (although this addressing system is no longer in use) (12, 13). By 1901, additional residence halls had been added to the original building in order to house the membership (14).

The brownstone building and accompanying additions were torn down to make way for the present building around 1913 to allow for additional space for the membership and to match the newly constructed Sheffield dormitories on either side, which were built from 1903-1906 (15).

In 1939, the Anthony Trust Association agreed to sell part of the building and corresponding land to the University at the completion of the “college plan.” This exchanged occurred on January 1^st, 1946. A dividing wall was put in place by the University to divide the two plots (16).

Founded in 1868, St. Anthony Hall, also known as the Sigma Chapter of Delta Psi, was one of a slew of Greek letter organizations that were founded at Yale between 1865 and 1890 (7). Membership in St. Anthony Hall was restricted to members of the Sheffield School. St. Anthony Hall and other Sheffield Societies played an especially important role on campus given the lack of sufficient dormitories owned by the school itself. The eight fraternities and societies housed over three hundred students of the Sheffield School (8).

While this was originally a boon to the school, Yale soon began to resent the two-tier status created by those living in the societies. As a result, Yale began to build residential colleges in the spirit of those at Oxford and Cambridge in the 1930s. As part of this plan, the University president at the time, Charles Seymour, decided to ban undergraduates from living in societies and fraternities. This posed a problem for St. Anthony Hall, which gained much of its revenue from income from the rent of members living in the building. As a result, John C. Greenleaf, the chairman of the Anthony Trust Association at the time, brokered a deal in 1939 to sell the dead to the north-most part of the building to Yale (9). This transaction finalized in 1946 after the end of the war and the completion of the college plan. Yale turned this section of the building into what is now the Sociology Department at 493 College Street.

During the war, with so many of its members serving overseas, St. Anthony Hall was home to members of the military who were stationed on campus for recruiting efforts. Army officers lived and worked out of these quarters (10).

Today, St. Anthony Hall is still home to the operations of the society, although no one lives in the building today. In addition to society operations, the society holds an annual fall lecture series as well as other special events throughout the years, including the annual Pump and Slipper Ball, which has been held for over a century and is mentioned in a number of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Sitting strikingly on the corner of College and Wall Streets, St. Anthony Hall marked by the south-most corner of the Sheffield School, its tower overlooking the lower buildings of the college to the south and west. St. Anthony Hall, connecting the two Vanderbilt Dormitories on either side of it, now part of Silliman College, created an L-shape, which in a way isolated the Sheffield school behind it from the College. Across the street, the Scroll and Key society building sits in stark contrast as representative of the split in historical society function between the College and Sheffield. Scroll and Key, with its windowless tomb-like design, is very clearly exclusively a building for society ritual. The windowed visage of St. Anthony Hall in contrast is as much a society building as it is a dormitory for Sheffield students.

Today, St. Anthony Hall is often unnoticed, blending in as planed with the better-known Silliman College around it, unlike other society tombs on campus. Even in this relatively anonymous position, the tower of the building is still a striking landmark of the Yale campus and emphasizes the Yale-dominated central campus, despite not technically being a Yale-own building itself.

The tower of St. Anthony Hall makes a prominent statement to passersby of the corner of Wall and College Streets. It is one of the tallest structures for blocks around it, with competition coming only from the tower of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall a block north. But while St. Anthony Halls tower marks the landscape, in some ways the building is hidden in plain sight. As intended, the building’s Late Gothic Revival styling blends in with the better-known Silliman College that surrounds it on either side. The cut limestone of the exterior of St. Anthony Hall matches that of the Silliman dormitories on College and Wall Streets. The Georgian elements on the college are not visible from these angles.

Charles C. Haight, the architect of the building, employs a juxtaposition of ornamented and simple elements up and down the building. He contrasts multi-panel pointed arch windows on the ground floor with simpler square and rounded arch window opening further up the tower. The top of the tower reflects the ornate style of the bottom, with Haight employing a variety of empty niches to draw attention to the topmost level. “St. Anthony Hall” is engraved above the current front door and the Greek letters ΔΨ overlook the ornamental iron gate that sits diagonally facing the intersection. This gate, designed by Heins and La Farge, was part of the second St. Anthony Hall building, which stood at the present site and was also designed by Heins and La Farge (5).

The original building comprised both 483 College Street and what is now known as the Yale Sociology Department at 493 College Street. Upon competition of the “college plan,” Yale students were no longer allowed to live in fraternities and societies. As a result, the Anthony Trust Associate, which owns St. Anthony Hall, chose to sell a portion of the building, which previously held the majority of the building’s residential rooms, to the University (6). As part of the transaction, the University paid for a number of physical modifications to the building, including constructing a dividing wall between the two properties and building a new entrance to the building where the current main entrance is today. 

1. Pinnell, Patrick. The Campus Guide: Yale University. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. 123.

2. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 509.

3. "Vanderbilt Gift To Sheff; Frederick W. to Build a New $160,000 St. Anthony Hall." The New York Times. July 09, 1913. Accessed February 25, 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/1913/07/09/archives/vanderbilt-gift-to-sheff-frederick-w-to-build-a-new-160000-st.html.

4. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 495.

5. Pinnell, Patrick. The Campus Guide: Yale University. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. 123.

6. Letter from John C. Greenleaf to Charles Seymour, President Of Yale University, Records. February 5, 1940. New Haven. RU 23. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives.

7. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 495.

8. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 507.

9. Letter from John C. Greenleaf to Charles Seymour, President Of Yale University, Records. February 5, 1940. New Haven. RU 23. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives.

10. Letter from John C. Greenleaf to Charles Seymour, President Of Yale University, Records. March 25, 1946. New Haven. RU 23. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives.

11. “493 College Street, formerly St. Anthony Hall (Delta Psi).” New Haven: The New Haven Preservation Trust, 1984.

12. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 509.

13. Pinnell, Patrick. The Campus Guide: Yale University. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. 123.

14. Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 1, 1901, 2.

15. Chittenden, Russell Henry. History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922. Vol. 2. Yale University Press, 1928. 509.

16. Map Enclosed in Letter from John C. Greenleaf to Charles Seymour, President Of Yale University, Records. February 21, 1945. New Haven. RU 23. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives.

Additional Sources:

Assorted Images. St. Anthony Hall Sigma Website.

"483 College Street." New Haven, CT Online Assessment Database. October 01, 2016. Accessed February 25, 2018. http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Parcel.aspx?Pid=13864.

Image of St. Anthony Hall. Yale Facilities. [via Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20071126220747/http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/9502.jpg.]

Photograph of Inside of St. Anthony Hall. Circa 1962. New Haven. RU 692. Yale University Manuscripts and Archives.

Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 1, 1886, 14.

Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 2, 1924, 208.

Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 1, 1973, 208.

“St. Anthony Hall, 1894-1913.” Yale’s Lost Landmarks. Yale Alumni Magazine. [via Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20070227153048/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/popup/landmarks/22.html.]