Albert Arnold Sprague Memorial Hall

Sitting near the center of campus at the intersection of College Street, Wall Street, and Alexander Walk, Sprague Hall is a relatively modest red brick building of three stories. Since its construction in 1917, it has served as the home of the Yale School of Music and Morse Recital Hall, a grand, all-white space that has hosted a variety of classical performances throughout the years (6). Sprague Hall also contains all the facilities prospective and current musicians might need, from practice and rehearsal rooms to recording studios and teaching spaces. Since its inception, the building has been described as “an architecture treasure” on Yale’s campus, and indeed, no building nearby quite resembles it (8).

Approaching the building along Alexander Walk, one will find their field of view slowly filled by the long expanse of Sprague Hall’s northern facade. The red brick wall is largely unadorned save for a line of stone that delineates the first and second floors from the exterior. Looking up, though, one might notice the large arched windows that allow plentiful amounts of light into the central recital hall and the ornaments that seem to hold the roof to the wall.

Turning the corner onto College Street, one will see a short cascading set of stairs that lead up to three dark, double wooden doors inlaid with small glass panes. These doors form the main entrance of Sprague Hall, and next to it is a concrete block with the building’s name, the words “Yale School of Music”, and the Yale School of Music’s emblem engraved in it. The front of Sprague Hall is similar to its side except for some extra details in the walls befitting the main face of such a building. Overall, this relatively simple yet impressive structure reflects the music that is performed in it. From Schubert’s playful sonatas to Beethoven’s resounding concertos, harmonious melodies resonate throughout a building that is able to capture their essence and reflect them as an image to the outside world.

• Yale University, specifically the School of Music (1917 – Present)

The land that Sprague Hall currently sits on has only been occupied by one other building since the inception of New Haven. In an aerial map of Yale and the greater New Haven area, one can see that on the corner of College Street and Wall Street, there lies a prominent house with two stories and a mansard roof that encompasses a third floor (9). Indeed, an 1888 Sanborn Insurance map of New Haven indicates that this was the dwelling of Reverend Timothy Dwight V, the 12th President of Yale (3). Reverend Dwight bought the house when he served as a professor at the university and only sold it to the university after he retired from the presidency position in 1899. The house was then given to the newly formed Yale School of Music as a building it could use for its operations (4). Unfortunately, little else is known about the building. Dwight’s former house was the last building remaining at the intersection of Wall Street and College Street that harkened back to the days of a residential street in the area. It was finally torn down in 1916 in preparation for the building of Sprague Hall.

Sprague Hall has been occupied by Yale University since its construction in 1917. As stated in the donation that provided the funding to construct the building, Sprague Hall was “to advance the best interests of music and to widen the usefulness of Yale University” (2). Indeed, since its inception, Sprague Hall has been a preeminent location for musical performances in New Haven.

However, as a building owned by an elite institution, Sprague Hall may also have created a divide between those who could and those who could not experience classical music. There is, of course, no concrete historical evidence to suggest that such a divide truly existed, but especially within the context of today’s discourse surrounding the relationship between Yale and New Haven, it is nearly impossible not to think about what effect Sprague Hall had on perceptions of music and other forms of “high culture.”

It is possible that the university and architects sought to limit the effect of this perception of inaccessibility through its design. Sprague Hall is large but not imposing; distinct yet modest; ever-present but not in-your-face. Especially with some more recent changes, such as the inclusion of partially glass doors, Sprague Hall creates an inviting air that beckons people from all walks of life to enter. The conversion of Wall Street into a pedestrian walkway further emphasizes this point. As detailed above, Wall Street used to cut between Sprague Hall and the Scroll and Key Tomb to connect College Street with York Street, but in 2021, its reconstruction into a fully pedestrian walkway was completed. Such an undertaking was almost certainly done to further connect the Yale campus by combining Cross Campus and the Schwarzman Center, but one side effect has been to make Sprague Hall literally more accessible. This is because the new Alexander Walkway encourages more foot traffic in the area, bringing in more people who may have otherwise not visited the area.

Sprague Hall sits near the center of Yale University’s campus and is surrounded by many other Yale buildings that offer similar functions. For example, Harkness Hall, which quite literally encircles half of Sprague Hall, includes multiple seminar and lecture-style classrooms and is a place where many music classes take place and acapella groups practice.

On the other side of Alexander Walk lies Woolsey Hall and the greater Schwarzman Center complex. Similar to Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Hall, Woolsey Hall is a place where music performances often occur. From professional musicians who utilize the built-in organ to student groups like the Yale Symphony Orchestra that hold widely-attended events like the Halloween concert, Woolsey Hall is somewhat of a sister venue to Sprague Hall. Right across College Street from Sprague Hall is Stoeckel Hall, which houses many of the facilities for the Yale Music Department that serves undergraduate students (5). Down College Street towards Old Campus and The Green and in the same block as Stoeckel Hall, one can find the other buildings that comprise the Yale School of Music, including Leigh Hall and Hendrie Hall. These structures around Sprague Hall form the heart of music on Yale’s campus.

Although all of these buildings serve the same greater purpose, from an architectural perspective, Sprague Hall is quite distinct from all of them. In material, only Stoeckel Hall uses red brick for its walls like Sprague Hall (Hendrie Hall also uses brick for its plain side walls, but the main façade that faces the street is largely comprised of some type of white stone, indicating that the brick used is simply structural and does not significantly contribute to the building’s presence). Even then, Stoeckel Hall is still quite different due to its use of a beige-colored brick in many places, the intricate stonework placed around the central windows and roof line, and the less prominent windows that are used around much of the building. Moreover, Stoeckel Hall is, in many respects, not as noticeable as Sprague Hall. This may be because, even though the stonework is elegant and unique, the building is set back from the sidewalk by green hedges and the comparative lack of glass omits a reflective surface from the building’s façade that would have otherwise drawn the eyes to it. On the whole, Sprague Hall stands out from many of its surrounding buildings but is still able to act as a cohesive element in the part of campus where it resides.

Another interesting feature around Sprague Hall that gives the building more presence is the pathway that runs alongside the length of the building. This pathway is currently called Alexander Walk, but for much of the time that Sprague Hall has occupied its current location, the area next to it was a continuation of Wall Street (1). The change from car lanes to pedestrian walkway began in 1990 when Yale and the City of New Haven agreed to close off the street to car traffic. For over two decades, this former road sat as it was even though its function had changed. Not until 2013 did Yale officially buy the land and announce that it would be rebuilt, and the reconstruction of the area into Alexander Walk was only recently completed in 2021. This change further incorporated Sprague Hall into the broader Yale campus by connecting Cross Campus and two of Yale College’s residential colleges with the Schwarzman Center and Beinecke Plaza, thus facilitating increased exposure to Yale students and members of the New Haven community.

Sprague Hall is a red brick building of the colonial revival and federal style. It has a simple rectangular shape with its length about twice as long as its width. The building’s main entrance (which faces College Street) is on the side of the structure’s narrower width. A short flight of omnidirectional concrete stairs delineates the entrance from the rest of the sidewalk. These concrete stairs also blend in with the concrete base of the building that wraps around the entire structure. Sprague Hall’s main entrance consists of three heavy, dark wooden double doors inset with small glass panes laid out in a two-by-five matrix for each door.

It is interesting to note that in earlier pictures of Sprage Hall (likely from the late 1990s or early 2000s from the looks of the cars in the picture), these doors were simply made of solid, white wood. These doors almost made it seem as if the building was boarded up since it prevented any sight into the building from the ground level. On the other hand, the current doors seem to invite passersby to slow down and notice the building, wondering what activities occur within. Each entryway is framed with a white-ish stone [check this when passing by the building], including the transom that separates the doors from the half-circle transom window that sits on top. The transom is lightly ornated with square slits cut into the stone at set intervals and other elements that convert it from a simple barrier between the door and window to something that seems to place the window on a pedestal of sorts. The window itself has thin metal bands placed within that create an organic pattern, something akin to a spider’s web. This detail is similar to the traceries found at the top of Gothic windows and lends the building an air of sophistication. The wall that surrounds each entrance is largely brick and has an arch at the top to accommodate the half-circle window. Notably, though, is the presence of a prominent stone keystone at the top of each arch.

Moving up from the first floor, we arrive at a band made of stone that wraps around the building. This band most likely delineates where the second story of Sprague Hall begins. Mirroring the three entrances, three windows lie right above this stone band. The windows have a height similar to the entrances below them, and their sash is made of white wood. Each window also has a balcony made of intricately formed wrought iron that lends the helps lend the façade an element of depth, which was missing on the first floor. The windows are also surrounded by lightly ornamented stone that seems to be the same material as the stone band that separates the first and second floors. The left and right windows are capped by a lightly decorated triangular stone piece that resembles pediments found in classical architecture.

On the other hand, the central window is capped by an arched stone piece, within which is ornately designed curved stonework and what looks to be a stone carving of Yale’s emblem. These details prominently bring out the second-floor windows, almost to the point where they might gain the attention of an observer before the main entrance if not for the fact that they reside on the second floor. On either side of the left and right windows, there are also cylindrical niches with domed ceilings. Nothing has been placed in them at the moment, but it almost seems like statues or something of the like were supposed to be there. Right above each niche is an ornately decorated brick element that seems to resemble a linear bouquet of flowers blossoming from the wall. In between each window and niche is a pilaster that goes all the way up past the third floor. These pilasters have Tuscan square bases made of stone that allow an observer to distinguish them from the surrounding wall since they are also made of red brick.

The third floor is not distinctly separated from the second floor, at least not when viewing the exterior. In this tier of the buildings, one can find three square windows right above the second-floor windows. These windows are very similar in design to those windows, although they are only about half the height and are not capped by any protruding stonework. On the far left and right sides aligned above each niche, there are two oval windows. Brick that has been placed in a different orientation from the rest of the wall surrounds these windows, and on the horizontal and vertical axis, four decorated pieces of brick have been placed that extend beyond the ring of brick. These elements accentuate what would otherwise be small windows near the top of the building. This level is also where the Scamozzi capitals cap the pilasters from before.

From here, the pilasters and Scamozzi capitals seem to hold up the roof structure. The roof begins with a stone band that once again wraps around the entire building. At the center of this band, the words “Arnold Albert Sprague Memorial” have been carved into the stone. Placed in line with these words and above each pilaster is a round stone element that looks similar to a flower. Above this band, the stone extends out from the building to accommodate a simple cornice. At this level, the roof is entirely flat. However, the wall of the building extends about two or three feet above the roof itself. Up here, the corners of the wall are constructed of brick, but in between, short columns of stone support a flat surface. The vertical details from below are brought up even here as in line with the pilasters, solid stone walls break up the columns into five sections.

The side of Sprague Hall that observers can see is very similar to the front façade, although without many of the more ornate details. One major distinction is that instead of having rectangular second and third-floor windows, the windows on the side are placed slightly above the stonework that separates the first and second stories and reach nearly up tot where the roof begins. The windows are rectangular with an arch at the top. These windows are sparsely decorated besides some stonework that surrounds the arched portion of the window. These windows likely lead into Morse Recital Hall, allowing for bountiful amounts of light to flow into the performance area. Another difference on this side of the building is that the wrought iron balcony below these windows extends nearly the entire length of the building instead of simply accommodating each window. Design-wise, though, the balcony is the exact same as the ones found at the front façade.

• “Alexander Walk and High Street Landscape Project Complete | It’s Your Yale,” June 17, 2021. https://your.yale.edu/news/2021/06/alexander-walk-and-high-street-landscape-project-complete.
• “History and Mission of the School of Music | Bulletin of Yale University,” n.d. https://bulletin.yale.edu/bulletins/music/history-and-mission-school-music.
• Insurance Maps of New Haven, Connecticut [map]. 50 feet to 1 inch. New York, NY: Sanborn Map Company, 1888; “Past Presidents,” Office of the President, December 11, 2017, https://president.yale.edu/about/past-presidents.
• Lynn, Catherine, Vincent Scully, Eric Vogt, and Paul Goldberger. Yale in New Haven: Architecture and Urbanism, 2004. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB09345829.
• Needham, Paul. “Stoeckel Hall Opens Anew - Yale Daily News.” Yale Daily News, November 10, 2012. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2009/01/30/stoeckel-hall-opens-anew/.
• The New York Times. “NEW MUSIC HALL AT YALE: Building Erected in Memory of Albert A. Sprague Is Dedicated.,” November 26, 1917.
• Office of the President. “Past Presidents,” December 11, 2017. https://president.yale.edu/about/past-presidents.
• Yale Bulletin and Calendar. “Refurbished Sprague Memorial Hall Is an ‘Architectural and Acoustical Triumph,’” August 29, 2003. http://archives.news.yale.edu/v32.n1/story2.html.
• The City of New Haven, Conn. 1879. 1879. Library of Congress. United States of America.
• Kirkegaard | Architectural Acoustics and Integrated Systems Design and Consulting. “Yale – Sprague Memorial Hall | Kirkegaard,” n.d. https://www.kirkegaard.com/sprague-memorial-hall/.