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1898: Blair Hall

View from northeast (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

View from northeast (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1

Blair Hall, the University's first collegiate Gothic dormitory, was a Sesquicentennial gift of John Insley Blair (1802-1899), a trustee of Princeton from 1866 to 1899.

As a boy in Warren County, New Jersey, Blair left school at age eleven to work in a country store. At eighteen he owned his own store, at twenty-seven he was operating a chain of five general stores and four large flour mills. He next acquired an interest in the iron mines at Oxford Furnace and helped found the Lackawanna Coal & Iron Company. He then helped organize the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and later, the Union Pacific Railroad. At one time he was president of sixteen railroads and was reputed to own more miles of railroad right-of-way than any other man in the world.

In 1864 he endowed the professorship of geology then held by Arnold Guyot; it is Princeton's second oldest endowed chair. Asked for a few remarks after his installation as a trustee in 1866, he reminded the Board that his own formal education was limited; he had spent most of his life learning addition and now, he said, ``I have come to Princeton to learn subtraction.'' He gave the funds for Blair Hall in 1896; it was built in 1897. He did other exercises in subtraction in favor of Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., and of the Presbyterian Church, making gifts of land and money toward the building of more than a hundred churches in towns he had helped lay out along the route of the Union Pacific and other western railroads.

Blair Hall was designed by Cope and Stewardson, who were among the first to apply the Tudor Gothic style to American college dormitories. Blair Hall is considered their masterpiece.

In 1907 Blair's son, DeWitt Clinton Blair 1856, who was also a trustee 1900-1909, gave the extension of Blair Hall that terminates in a gateway tower on University Place.

When first built, Blair, Little, and the Gymnasium marked the western boundary of the campus. Originally the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks came to the foot of the broad steps leading up to Blair Arch, which served as the entrance to the campus for visitors arriving by train. This was a convenience for most people but a mixed blessing for students living in Blair; the puffing engine parked below often kept them awake and the soot from its smokestack blew into their rooms. In 1918 the railroad station near the foot of the steps was moved a quarter of a mile to the south and the intervening tracks taken up, making way for the post-World War I dormitory development that Blair Tower now overlooks.

Source: Leitch p. 59 ff

More information on Blair Hall

Blair Hall in Evolution of the Campus


View from southwest, with rairoad station (photo before clock installed)

View from southwest, with rairoad station (photo before clock installed)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


North facade of west wing (photo early 20th century?)

North facade of west wing (photo early 20th century?)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


Arch, viewed from northeast (photo circa 1930)

Arch, viewed from northeast (photo circa 1930)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


Exterior, north side, portion left from angle right

Exterior, north side, portion left from angle right

Other license.

Source: Robert J. Clark


View through arch, looking southwest (photo 1930's or 40's)

View through arch, looking southwest (photo 1930's or 40's)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, MP 4


View from northeast (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

View from northeast (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, MP 3


View from southwest in winter (photo 1920's or 30's, after removal of railroad station)

View from southwest in winter (photo 1920's or 30's, after removal of railroad station)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


View from railroad station platform (photo early 20th century)

View from railroad station platform (photo early 20th century)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


View from southwest (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

View from southwest (photo circa 1897, before clock installed)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, MP 3


View from northeast, with Bonner-Marquand at right (photo before 1907)

View from northeast, with Bonner-Marquand at right (photo before 1907)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

. (Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP 1


Entrance Tower

Entrance Tower

Other license.

Source: Unknown


View from northeast (photo from album, circa 1905)

View from northeast (photo from album, circa 1905)

Other license.

Source: "Gray Album", c.1905 (Robert J. Clark), pl.7


View from west. (1896-1917 )

View from west. (1896-1917 )

Other license.

Source: Unknown


Stairway to arch (photo 1988)

Stairway to arch (photo 1988)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, MP 4


North extension, arch on University Place, with Halsted Observatory at left (photo 1910's?)

North extension, arch on University Place, with Halsted Observatory at left (photo 1910's?)

Princeton University. Property of the Trustees of Princeton University.

Source: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, SP4