Phelps Gate/Phelps Hall

Constructed in 1896 by American architect, Charles C. Haight, Phelps Gate/Phelps Hall is considered to be the main entrance to Yale University’s campus. Phelps Hall is a five-storied, monumental Victorian Gothic building that is distinguished by Phelps Gate -- a grand, intricately detailed, Tudor style, wrought iron gate that cuts under it. Through its entry, Phelps Gate creates a passageway from the city of New Haven to the private, cloistered campus of Yale University. The façade of Phelps Hall is composed of brick and stone, intended to complement the two preexisting, low-rise, brick dormitories to which it is connected; however, its unique trimmings and grand scale allow it to stand apart from its homogeneous, neighboring brick buildings as a monumental entrance to Yale’s campus. Phelps Hall currently houses Yale University’s Classics department. 

Yale University (1896-Present)

Phelps Hall/Phelps Gate was constructed on an open piece of land on Yale’s Old Campus. No other building stood on that land prior to the building’s construction. Upon completion, Phelps Hall was “put to practical use as a ‘recitation building,’” but it is presently used as the Classics Department office building (10). The building is now comprised of Professor and administrative offices as well as seminar-style rooms for class use. 

Phelps Hall/Phelps Gate was constructed by Yale University in 1896 and funded by the family of W. W. Phelps upon Phelps’ death (5). Built during Yale President Timothy Dwight’s administration, the building serves as a gateway between greater New Haven and Yale University’s central campus (6). The societal implications of the construction of Phelps Hall -- as well as its neighboring buildings erected at the same time period -- were substantial: “along with Sturgis’ Lawrence Hall of 1886, his Battell Chapel of 1876, Haight’s Vanderbilt Hall of 1894 and Phelps Hall, the buildings served to enclose Yale’s Old Campus, creating a substantial interior court and, most significantly, cutting the university off from the city,” separating the private from the public (7). At various points over the last century, Phelps Gate has been barricaded, further cloistering Yale from the New Haven community that surrounds it. For example, in 1918, Phelps Gate was closed to quarantine and “protect” the Yale community from the influenza pandemic that, as in other cities and towns across the United States, was sweeping though the New Haven community (8). In 1976, Phelps Gate was barricaded as a security-measure after several female Yale students were reportedly sexually assaulted in their dormitories by outside intruders (9). Then in 1984, additional electronic security systems were put in place to even further barricade Old Campus from its New Haven surroundings. From then until present, access to through the Gate requires electronic swipe access after 9 pm, although it remains open during the day.

Phelps Hall and its impressive arch sits on the former Brick Row of Yale University’s Old Campus. It was the last building constructed on the row of Old Campus buildings facing the New Haven Green (4). Thus, Phelps Hall/Phelps Gate “forms the central entrance to the campus from the city through an arched walkway” (4). 

This five story, Victorian Gothic building with its iconic gate is composed of brick and stone and has a flat roof. Four “flanking polygonal turrets” that are “kept absolutely solid and unbroken from base to parapet,” topped with copper caps with finials, jut out from the four corners of the building to add to its monumental presence (1). Above the archway on the College Street façade of the building is a “sash-frame” inscribed with “Lux et Veritas” that enhances the “three storied oriel” that spans from the keystone of the arch through the fourth floor (1). The roof features a Medieval-style parapet. The Yale University Old Campus-facing façade displays two ornamental turret-shaped pilasters that span the bottom three stories and are decorative and non-structural. Phelps Gate, a black, wrought iron gate, is encircled by a Tudor-style gateway and is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the building. The archway was specifically designed to be as grand as possible while still supporting the mass of Phelps Hall (1). Detailed and decorative acanthus leaf carvings surround the opening arch on both facades of the building and announce the importance of the structure to all who enter.

When constructed in 1896, Phelps Hall was equipped with heating, steam, lighting, and electricity (2). In 1965, the interior was updated with fire alarms, electrical fixtures, a fire escape, plumbing, library furniture, air conditioning, and a Payne elevator (3). Electronic security and control systems were implemented in 1984 as part of Yale University’s effort to increase security on campus (3). 

1.    Montgomery Schuyler, A Review of the Work of Chas. C. Haight, Google Books, accessed February 20, 2018, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OPBMAQAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=charles%2Bc%2Bhaight%2Bphelps%2Bhall%2Byale&ots=oU5sdGifOe&sig=QSrSyusD-nD7MnpKNoQ0TO6KGyg#v=onepage&q=phelps&f=false, 80.

2.    Sanborn Map Company of New York, Insurance Maps of New Haven Connecticut, Volume 2, 1924, 203.

3.    Yale University Building Project Records (RU 5). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

4.    Colin M Caplan, A Guide to Historic New Haven, Connecticut (Charlston, SC: The History Press, 2007).

5.    Brooks Mather Kelley, “Beginnings of Change,” in Yale: A History, 273-97 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974), http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32btbf.17, 292.

6.    Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Sketch of the History of Yale University, Google Books, accessed February 20, 2018, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dws4AAAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=history%2Bof%2Bphelps%2Bhall%2Byale&ots=G6NdqWsoUK&sig=ex72jFGAGH7N7lDYw8WIOoyC4p0#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20phelps%20hall%20yale&f=false, 94.

7.    Paul Goldberger, “Yale's Architecture: A Walking Tour,” New York Times, accessed February 20, 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/13/travel/yale-s-architecture-a-walking-tour.html?pagewanted=all.

8.    Patrick Lee, “The 1918 Influenza Quarantine,” Yale Daily News, January 28, 2008, accessed February 24, 2018, https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/01/28/the-1918-influenza-quarantine/.

9.    Mary Breasted. "Yale Shuts Gates To Curb Assaults." The New York Times. February 05, 1976. Accessed February 24, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/05/archives/yale-shuts-gates-to-curb-assaults.html

10. Schuyler, 78.