Klauder, Charles Zeller (1872 – 1938). Architectural diagram for renovations of Dwight Hall, dated 28 January 1931. Photostat on heavy stock, 18 x 28 in. On the reverse is a schematic in ink (we think) titled, “Principal Buildings at Yale College 1842 – 1953.” Some yellowing and a few light stains, curled from storage, but still in very good condition overall.

Built in the 1840s by three of the most influential architects in America – Henry Austin, Alexander Jackson Davis, and Ithiel Town – the iconic building now known as Dwight Hall began its life as the Yale College library. It marked a new direction for architecture at Yale, a significant shift away from the utilitarian structures of Old Brick Row, laid out in the eighteenth century, towards a new Gothic aesthetic. Over the following decades, the library’s contents eventually moved to other buildings – the art to Street Hall, the scientific collections to the Peabody Museum, and finally in 1930, the books to the newly-completed Sterling Memorial Library.  With this last displacement, Charles Z. Klauder was called in to repurpose the structure.

Klauder

One of the leading school architects of the day, Klauder left his mark on campuses throughout North America, helping to formulate the Collegiate Gothic idiom. Among the schools for which he designed buildings are Brown University, the University of Colorado Boulder, Cornell University, Franklin and Marshall College, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Penn State University. At Yale he built the Peabody Museum, completed in 1925.

The present photostatic blueprint represents a late stage of his plan to convert the old library into a new home for the school’s Christian association, which was founded in the 1860s. The association was named Dwight Hall in honor of two of Yale’s presidents, and the structure took the name of the group. Under Klausner’s hand, the library’s central hall became the Dwight Memorial Chapel, flanked by assembly rooms, a library and offices. Today, the building houses Yale’s Center for Public Service and Social Justice.

An ink plan on the rear of the drawing places the building (here labeled “Library 1842”) in local architectural context.

Selected References

Morash, Emily Chace and Abigail Kulewicz, "Dwight Hall", [New Haven, Connecticut], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CT-01-009-0027. Last accessed: January 21, 2026.

Pinnell, Patrick L. Yale University Campus Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.