Architects of Berzelius Buildings
- Donn Barber. (1908 or 1910, current society building. Style likened to "blank cube" but with classical ornamentation.)
- Henry Bacon and James Brite. (completed 1898, residential building, nonextant, brick Neo-Renaissance-style dormitory. Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect best remembered for his severe Greek Doric Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Yale purchased the building in 1933 for student housing and later used it for faculty offices. The building was demolished in 1969 to make way for construction of the Yale Health Services Center, 17 Hillhouse Avenue. Pictured at and
Architectural historian Patrick L. Pinnell notes in his 1999 book "Yale University" Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 1-56898-167-8 .) that Berzelius sold to the Scroll and Key Society the site on which the latter erected its own tomb.
Architectural historian Scott Meacham cites both Berzelius buildings in his study of Yale and Dartmouth society and fraternity architecture.
The surviving ca. 1908-10 building's location, set off from the more active center of Yale's campus, lends privacy to Berzelius' members, and its unadorned largely blank exterior conveys to outsiders the deceptive sense that nothing much happens inside - a strategy arguably more effective at discouraging prying eyes than the unmistakable 'stay out' message architecturally conveyed by the monumental buildings of others of Yale's societies, such as Skull and Bones and Wolf's Head. In addition to the meeting room, dining area, and numerous study rooms, there are below-ground activity rooms with a pool table and ping pong table for recreation. BZ recently underwent a major restoration.
Read more about this topic: Berzelius (secret Society)
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