Office of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies

Yale's Office of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies resides in a building with rich architectural history tied to the student culture and social influence of the university. The building was commissioned and built in 1884 for the Wolf's Head Senior Society, a group established to challenge the exclusive secret society culture at Yale. The building's standout, deliberately bold architecture --a figurehead of the Richardson Romanesque style designed by McKim, Mead & White Architects-- symbolizes the ambitious intents of its commissioners to drive change in the Yale student experience. After being sold to Yale in 1924 and rented out or used for various university-adjacent groups and institutional functions since, the building's standout design and foreboding presence have become integrated into the University's architectural heritage, today more reflective of the institution's storied and elite image than critical of it.

1884-1924 Wolf’s Head Senior Society (Image 1). 1924 Building sold to Yale University as Wolf’s Head moves to current “New Hall.” 1924-1929 Chi Psi (Senior Society); rented 1932-1934 Practice rooms for School of Music and Glee Club. 1934-1935 Book and Bond (Senior Society); rented. 1930s Building labeled as laboratory. When buildings were merging underground, a behavioral lab was established in the basement as shown in the Sanborn Map (Image 3). 1944-1954 Vernon Hall (now Myth and Sword Society)

There were no prior buildings in this plot of land before the construction of the present 91 Trumbull Street structure as it was open land that was bought by the Phelps Association (alias company used by Wolf’s Head). Because the building is so architecturally unique, it is very difficult to find new tenants that can embody the exterior prominence and symbolism. This is likely why Yale bought the building in 1924 and has maintained it since, only renting the building to users. Being built for a society, the trend of tenants makes sense in that other societies including Chi Psi and Book and Bond were main users of the building until the offices inhabited the space. Naturally, the structure of the building is well suited for small, exclusive meetings due to the lack of entry points and the arrangement of the meeting space being confined. Also, the 1923-1930 Sanborn company map shows clearly the sheer number of changes in usage for the building during this tumultuous time as Wolf’s Head vacated for its current location (Image 3). Surprisingly the interior of the building has not altered drastically despite the multiple “tenants” that have inhabited the space. Currently, the dining hall of the Wolf’s Head “Old Hall” has been converted to the Office of the Director of ISPS, and the main meeting room has been converted to a library (Image 12). The 2.5th floor (the attic) which the Romeo and Juliet Balcony extends from has been left unused accumulating dust and rubble. However, everything else including the intricate wood carvings on the rims of the doors, the ornate details on the wood box newel post and the wood baluster, and the tinted glass, are all very well maintained (Image 6). An interesting detail that was added likely due to the merging of the three buildings to create the new ISPS and Economics department buildings was the change in font on the signs between buildings. 91 Trumbull Street has an elegant old-English font while the Policy Institute has a more standardized, logo font (Image 8). It is a creative way to differentiate the buildings and speaks to the prominence of 91 Trumbull Street compared to other surrounding buildings.

The history of this building is directly tied with the history of the Wolf’s Head senior society. Fifteen rising seniors from the Yale Class of 1884, with help from members of the Yale Class of 1883 abetted the creation of The Third Society, now commonly known as Wolf's Head. It was a symbol of resistance against the two main societies at the time, Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key, as they felt these societies were too exclusive and distant from the broader Yale community. Thus, they created this society and funding originally mainly came from Yale College and Law School alumni under the name “The Phelps Association” for those who were opposed to these societies. Now, Wolf’s Head is the second most prominent, prestigious, and well-endowed society at Yale University. This core emotion of being an unprecedented new society at the time was well reflected in the architecture. A large part of architecture and one of the main restraints is budget. Elaborate detailing and extravagant exteriors can be costly to design and build. However, because of their extreme popularity amongst alumni and fellow Yale College students, the society members were able to hire the best architects and allow them to have creative freedom to create the best “modern” society building. So, they decided to hire McKim, Mead & White one of the most prolific and era-defining American architectural firms at the time. However, they started to work as a joint firm in the 1880s making Wolf’s Head was one of their earliest clients. This likely contributed to their additional emphasis to create a unique building to try and establish their building style. After working on 91 Trumbull Street, the firm designed Manhattan's former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of American History, and the main campus of Columbia University, as well as renovating the West and East Wings of the White House. To follow the trend of being unique and revolutionary tonality against the two main societies, McKim, Mead & White decided on building a Richardsonian Romanesque-style building which for the time was still very new. A notable addition that was specifically noted was the fact that the building has “real windows”, unlike Skull and Bones or Scroll and Key. Also, the other society buildings are made from marble and other luxurious material that exemplified status, but 91 Trumbull Street was the complete opposite where they used rustic, everyday red sandstone and brownstone. It is interesting that the architecture of these buildings as a form of appeal and policy reform to encourage certain agendas of opening up societies and making them more accessible. Additionally, it is worth note that the building was intentionally built as a social space. All rooms do not have black boards or anywhere to place rows of desks despite being a college building. This is likely the reason why most of the users and tenants of the space were student groups and societies, as the rooms were too few and compact for any other practical use. In today’s standard, having such prominent architects design a university office building is quite rare and contributes to the broader historical relevance of this neighborhood of New Haven.

Due to the building’s construction in 1884, which is slightly after many of the neighboring old Hillhouse mansions were built, there was already a pressure for McKim, Mead & White to match the uniqueness of these buildings and create a building that is up-to-par. This is a historically unique environment in the United States especially because of the diversity in architectural styles and freedom in real estate (Image 1). Back when the building was under construction, there were not many stone buildings as shown by the lack of blue buildings in the Sanborn map (Image 2). Thus, from an urban setting standpoint it is the goal McKim, Mead & White to be unique in design and establish precedence but not stand out in a negative way. The intrinsic observation geographically is its prime location at the corner of two historically busy streets: Prospect and Trumbull. Particularly, since Prospect Street is essentially climbing a hill from South to North, 91 Trumbull being situated at this intersect makes it positioned at the top of the first hill before Science Hill. Since buildings like the Malone Center and the CEID did not exist in the late 19th century (Image 11). The Wolf’s Head “Old Hall” was likely the first building visible when looking up Prospect Street from the city and main campus of Yale University (Image 10). This adds prominence to the real estate of the building and its symbolism observing the city from a higher elevation. Also, it is interesting for the choice of the main entrance being at the corner of the building closest to the intersection. The decision shows that McKim, Mead & White purposefully wanted this barrier of entry to be the first impression of the building, promoting the meaning of the building from its positioning. Additionally, an interesting detail is that it is diagonally across from the Grove Street Commentary, which shares material in its walls creating a sense of continuity. A particularly eye-catching observation from was the difference in the building’s appearance between night and daytime. During the day, all of the architectural nuances and as described above can be observed readily and the building’s new connection to the neighboring building as a part of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies are more apparent. However, during the night, especially when compared to surrounding buildings, the already dark stone become more enticing and in some ways unwelcoming. One of the features was before mentioned gothic-style circular stained glass. Although not observable from street-level especially with overgrown trees, there are two different circular stained glass: one orange-stained window on the center of the north crow-stepped gable and one blue-stained window on the center of the south crow-stepped gable. There were no written explanations of this difference, but I hypothesize because the Romeo and Juliet Balcony is facing the orange-stained window this may represent light or the sun. The Yin and Yang effect of these stained glass may also have symbolic meaning to the Wolf’s Head senior society itself that is private to their organization. These slight alterations give an arcane sense to the building during the night especially from street-level further contributing to its sense of secrecy.

91 Trumbull Street is a 2.5 story Richardsonian Romanesque-style building on the corner of Trumbull and Prospect Street. This is fitting for the incredibly famous architects, McKim, Mead & White, responsible for the structure as White began his career at the age of 18 as the principal assistant to Henry H. Richardson. Richardson was the creator of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of the building and the architectural design was likely heavily influenced the design process. In a stereotypical fashion, the building is made from large, randomly coursed red sandstone and brownstone with almost baronial structure that is meant to dominate the landscape showcasing the grandiosity of the building. Along with creating this prominent façade, by purposefully leaving the foundational stones unpolished, it also allows for vines and ivy to naturally grow on the building creating an interesting contrast between the green nature and the brown stone (Image 9). This gives the building an additional mystic exterior, which perfectly fits demographic of the original tenants being senior society members. To increase the Richardsonian Romanesque aesthetic of the building, there are vertically attenuated tripartite first and second story windows, polychrome brownstone and limestone Roman arches, and short stone parapet walls that separate the sidewalk with the building (Image 5 and 7). The choice of having thin, lightly tinted rectangular window without rounding set precedence at the time as a senior society building because all previous buildings did not have any windows to emphasize exclusiveness. The windows make the building more open to the public and allow the passing of sunlight, while still maintaining privacy within. The polychrome design of the arch provides further sophistication at the entrance of the building setting the tone for visitors of the prominence of the organization inhabiting the space. The parapet walls are only around two feet tall, so they do not obstruct the view of the building itself. They allow for garden space and removes the building from other surrounding infrastructure, lights, and sidewalk maintaining the symbolic prominence and mysticism of the building. However, what separates this building from other Richardson Romanesque or Romanesque Revival architecture are the additional eclecticist features. One of the most obvious is the crow-stepped gable at the north and south ends of the roof (Image 7). These gables are triangular stair-step like patterns at the top wall that projects above the roofline. Similar to the false-front architecture observed in Western expansion towns, the crow-stepped gable allows the building to appear taller and more extravagant than the physical square space entails. Interestingly, crow-stepped gables were traditionally used on Dutch houses and thus Dutch Colonial Revival-styles in the 19th century, where the inspiration likely came from. The triangle pattern from the gable also creates space for a non-traditional Greek-style pediment allowing for the gothic-style circular stained glass to be implemented, which will be discussed later. Another eclecticist architectural addition is the portico on the southwestern edge facing the Grove Street Cemetery. Porticoes are common in Victorian or Colonial revival due to its origin in Ancient Greek temples making it again unique from traditional Richardson Romanesque architecture. Even within traditional portico design, the one used in this building is unique because it was built within the dimensions of the 35 x 70’ building as it is inside the main frame and the second floor defines the ceiling instead of an additional roof. Also, there are no prominent Greek columns as they are replaced structurally with the Richardsonian polychrome arches. Furthermore, McKim, Mead & White decided to completely restrict this space by implementing Victorian-style wrought iron gates (Image 5). These are deceptive at first glance because of the intentional intricacies while casting where they seem to be elegant and artistic due to the floral spreads of the end matching the randomness of the ivy that surrounds (Image 7). However, upon further inspection, the fine sharpness of the iron at the top and bottom of the fence sends a clear message of exclusivity and privateness. This design choice of solitude and defense over gracefulness and sophistication, even within the same gothic-style iron castings observed in other Hillhouse mansions in the neighborhood, again speaks directly to the functionality of the building and its society tenants. Lastly, another eclecticist addition of worth note is the door. Following the same themes as the other designs, the former Wolf’s Head building only has one grandiose door that is around 5 x 10’. The material is unknown, but it is most likely wood given the weight and texture, and the door rotates inward into the building. This is an interesting choice because there is space due to the portico to swing outwards without obstructing anything. This was likely to again show the closed environment and restriction as an additional barrier of entry (Image 5). Despite all of these intricate details and “mashing” of architectural styles, I noticed there was still a lack of outward detail that you would expect from a building trying to display its upmost extravagance. For instance, there were no Italianate brackets, large Greek columns, or complex entablatures. However, on the opposite end, there are no chimneys stacks or large first-story windows that would be expected of a vernacular residential home. These details make the building still minimalist and mysterious while keeping its sophisticated and academic façade perfectly representing prominence of the Wolf’s Head senior society.

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