Rosenfeld Hall

Rosenfeld Hall is currently at Yale dormitory building located at the corner of Temple and Grove Street. This building is L-shaped in form with a tan limestone tower in the middle and radiating brick wings off to the sides. Although originally built to be the main clubhouse for the St. Elmo senior society in 1912-1913, the building was bought by Yale University in 1962. In 1983, with the donation of Richard N. Rosenfeld (B.A. 1963), the building was renovated and renamed Rosenfeld Hall. The building served as the Yale Language Lab, as well as, consisting of some dorm spaces for Yale College students until 1995 when Rosenfeld Hall became the official annex for Timothy Dwight College students as it still remains today.

1912-1962 St. Elmo Senior Society (Rhinelander Trust Association

1963-1994 Yale University Language Lab

1995-Present Yale University Timothy Dwight College Undergraduate Students

St. Elmo, Delta Phi Fraternity’s house was originally located at 111 Grove Street and was built in 1895 [5]. Adjacent to this house, located on the corner of Grove and Temple Street at 109 Grove Street, was a residential brick house owned by Mrs. E.T. Denton [2]. St. Elmo acquired the lot of 109 Grove Street from Mrs. Denton prior to the construction of St. Elmo Hall in 1912-1913. The original clubhouse for St. Elmo was subsequently demolished to allow this building to sit on the combined properties of 109-111 Grove Street.

Originally named St. Elmo Hall, the building was constructed in 1912-1913 by St. Elmo, an independent entity within the nationally chartered Omicron Chapter of Delta Phi. St. Elmo was senior society that was comprised solely of the Sheffield Scientific School seniors who belonged to this fraternity [6]. This new building became the society’s main clubhouse and residential housing for these students. In July of 1925 though, the Omicron Chapter of Delta Phi severed its ties with the national organization, thus making the St. Elmo senior society, an independent organization within the Sheffield Scientific School [5].

As Yale College started to take over the Sheffield Scientific School and expand within New Haven, the institution looked to rent out space for dormitory space. In 1945, Yale University started to lease space from St. Elmo Hall, although now re-incorporated as the Rhinelander Trust Association. Then, in 1962, Yale University bought out the entire building from, now named, St. Elmo Incorporated, but with the promise that they would continue to lease part of the building for the use of the St. Elmo senior society [5]. This was short lived unfortunately as the University refused to renew St. Elmo’s lease in 1985, leaving the St. Elmo senior society to fund housing elsewhere [5].

With full ownership and control of the building, Yale University renamed the building from St. Elmo Hall to Rosenfeld Hall in 1985 after the charitable donation by Richard N. Rosenfeld (Yale College B.A. 1963) to renovate the whole building [1 and 9]. With this donation, Yale University redesigned the ground floor to create a space for the Yale Language Library and Language Laboratory. The upper levels remained additional dormitory space to be used as an annex to Timothy Dwight College Students. Rosenfeld also endowed the future renovation for the entire Rosenfeld Hall building (including both the Language Lab and the dormitory space) with this donation [10].

Rosenfeld Hall remained the Yale Language Lab until 1994 when it was converted to be totally used as dormitory space for Timothy Dwight College for the 1995 year. One large classroom still remained to be used for Yale College classes. It still currently remains as dorm rooms for any undergraduate students annexed from the main building of Timothy Dwight College. This body of students usually consists mainly of Timothy Dwight juniors, as well as, some sophomores.

Rosenfeld Hall is located on the corner of Grove Street and Temple Street, adjacent from Timothy Dwight College, Silliman College, and Dow Hall (the current Center for Language Study). This area has a high building density but sits between Temple Street, which is mostly comprised of residential buildings, and Church Street/Whitney Avenue, which is mostly comprised of commercial buildings. Therefore, Rosenfeld Hall serves as the northeast edge of Yale’s downtown campus as everything eastward is part of New Haven’s business district and everything westward owned by Yale University. This location also sits at the foot of Yale’s Science Hill, as it is located on the street directly to the right of Hillhouse Avenue.

This location is highly visible to cars and pedestrians as the entrance faces the corner of Temple and Grove Streets. Grove Street is one of New Haven’s busiest streets as it runs westward through all of Yale’s campus, so car traffic and noise is frequent. Being located between residential and commercial buildings, on top of being close to Yale’s campus, also provides Rosenfeld Hall with a lot of foot traffic.