Hillhouse Avenue - Buildings

Buildings

Yale now owns all of the properties on Hillhouse Avenue except for St. Mary's Church and its parish house. Many of the mansions of the upper area have been converted for use by the economics department, Cowles Foundation, School of Management, and other academic departments, and have been completely restored. Lower Hillhouse primarily includes university buildings, a number of them formerly part of the Sheffield Scientific School. There are several houses designed by architects Ithiel Town, Henry Austin and Alexander Jackson Davis. The area at the end of the avenue where Hillhouse's mansion stood is now part of the Science Hill section of Yale's campus.

Notable buildings on Hillhouse Avenue that are included in the historic district are:

• James Dwight Dana House, designed by Henry Austin, built 1845-1848. Home to the Yale Statistics Department for many years, and listed as a U.S. National Historic Landmark
• Mary Prichard House, 1836. This Greek revival design by Alexander Jackson Davis includes a two-story Corinthian porch with white columns. It is also known as the Provost's House and has been used to house Yale administration.
• Henry Farnam House, Russell Sturgis, 1871. Redesigned with Victorian features removed in 1934. It has been the home of Yale's presidents since 1937.
• John Pitkin Norton House (Steinbach Hall, Yale School of Management), 1849. Tuscan/Italian Villa on Hillhouse Avenue designed by Henry Austin.
• Charles Henry Farnam House, J. Cleaveland Cady, 1884. Queen Anne style.
• Pelitiah Perit (Horchow Hall, Yale School of Management), Sidney Mason Stone, 1859. Renaissance revival/Tuscan.
• Graves-Dwight House, 1862. This villa is now used by the Yale Anthropology Department.
• Apthorp House (Evans Hall, Yale School of Management), Town and Davis, 1836 (with extensive subsequent remodeling).
• Skinner House (Yale International Center of Finance), Town and Davis, 1832. Landmark Greek Revival.
• Graves-Gilman House (now 37 Hillhouse), 1866. Victorian Italian Villa. Home of Sheffield professor, Daniel Coit Gilman. Converted into apartments for married Yale students (1946–1957). George H. W. Bush lived here while he was a student and his son lived here until the age of two. Now used by the Yale Department of Economics.
• Abigail Whelpey House, 1826. The oldest house standing on Hillhouse. This Federal structure was altered in the 1860s with a mansard roof and dormer windows by Noah Porter, later President of Yale. The house, now known as Allwin Hall, has served as a residence for Yale administrators.

Buildings on lower Hillhouse Avenue, outside of the historic district, include:

• Cloister Hall (now Warner House), 1888. Brownstone building originally served the Book and Snake fraternity of the Sheffield School.
• Kirtland Hall, Dunham Laboratory, Mason Laboratory, Leet Oliver Memorial Hall. Yale University buildings originally part of the Sheffield Scientific School.
• St. Mary's Church and parish house.
• Sheffield-Town Mansion. Ithiel Town, 1836. Additions for Joseph Earl Sheffield by Henry Austin in 1859. Razed in 1957.
• Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, 1895. Romanesque structure built originally for the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.

Significant properties not on Hillhouse Avenue, but included in the historic district, include:

• Russell Henry Chittenden House, at 83 Trumbull Street, listed as a National Historic Landmark.
• Wolf's Head, built in 1883, designed by McKim, Mead & White, Richardsonian Romanesque with stepped end gables, former home of Wolf's Head Society.
• William Lyon Phelps House, 1908–1909, at 110 Whitney Avenue, Colonial Revival
• a second William Lyon Phelps House, 1914, at 114 Whitney Avenue, designed by J. Frederick Kelly, "one of New Haven's finest Colonial Revival-style structures"