History
Original plans slated Clapp Hall to be built adjacent to the Cathedral of Learning facing the Masonic Temple, on the south side of Fifth Avenue, between the Cathedral and Heinz Memorial Chapel. Concerns over adding more buildings to the Cathedral of Learning lawn and impinging on the lawn's rare open space prompted a change to its current site across Fifth Avenue and effectively ended above-ground development of the Cathedral lawn space.
The 3-acre (12,000 m2) plot of land that Clapp Hall was constructed on was purchased for $675,000 ($5.9 million today) as a gift for the university by the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. Ground was broken for Clapp Hall in 1954 and the building was completed in 1956. The six-story building cost $2.5 million ($21.4 million today) and it was initially used only for freshman chemistry, although other sciences soon moved into the building. it is conjoined with Langley and Crawford Halls, which were added in later stages, and forms the three-building Clapp/Langley/Crawford Complex. The triangular courtyard at the southwest entry to Clapp Hall, facing the Cathedral of Learning, was modified in 2004 to accommodate trees and benches.
The building is named for George Hubbard Clapp (1858–1949), an alumnus (class of 1877) and president of Pitt's Board of Trustees for more than 40 years. Clapp was one of five responsible for the first commercial production of aluminum and was a founder of the Aluminum Company of America.
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