The Evolving Campus

Those who have studied or worked at Hamilton hold their own memories of the unique and evocative power of the College’s setting, buildings, and grounds.

For more than two centuries, the planners and caretakers of Hamilton’s verdant 1,350-acre campus have meticulously and thoughtfully ensured that the facilities and grounds provide the ideal setting for living and learning at the highest level.

Today is no exception.

Hamilton has embarked on a comprehensive effort to develop a new master plan that will inform the next era of campus development. Although decisions regarding specific projects and timelines remain to be determined, preliminary research* included a look back at five historical eras that led to today’s Hamilton, including the prominent figures, philosophies, and design principles that influenced how the College has evolved through the years.

We invite you on a journey to learn about the evolution of our College.

Early Era: 1792-1853

In 1788, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland received a land grant from the Oneidas purportedly in recognition of his decades of missionary work among them. Four years later he built a cottage on the land and in 1794 opened the Hamilton-Oneida Academy at the base of College Hill. In 1798, a larger building for the academy was built on College Hill near the site of the future Chapel. From this earliest period, only Kirkland Cottage remains (moved to its present location in 1925), along with a boarding house (now Backus House), which was relocated in 1853.

Kirkland also acquired Lombardy poplars from Philadelphia and planted them in long rows along College Hill Road and Campus Road. Although a short-lived species, these columnar trees became an icon of campus throughout the 19th century.

In 1812, Hamilton College was chartered. Its first president, Azel Backus, was given the boarding house as his residence, and a dining commons, Buttrick Hall, was built from “sandy gray dolostone” quarried near Clinton. Use of this stone set a precedent for College construction materials for the next hundred years.

Azel Backus

A New England pastor, Azel Backus was lured to the wilds of Central New York in 1812 with the promise of a presidential “mansion.” Hamilton’s first president resided in what is today known as Backus House for four years before he died of typhus contracted while nursing a sick tutor (who, by the way, recovered).

A graduate of Yale, Backus was influenced by the Yale Row model (ca. 1792). He died in 1816, but the plan continued under president Henry Davis, another Yale graduate. Starting with South College in 1814, a series of four-story stone buildings were built perpendicular to College Hill Road. The row included Kirkland Hall/Middle College (1823) and North College (1842), and was centered on the distinctive three-story Chapel (1827), designed by trustee John Lothrop with noted architect Philip Hooker envisioning the tower-and-steeple façade. The 1798 academy building was demolished.

Paths made of crushed red shale connected buildings and ran across the campus’ “front lawn” leading down to Campus Road.

Oren Root

When he joined the faculty in 1849, Oren Root brought with him an extensive mineralogy collection that grew to more than 10,000 specimens. A passionate gardener, he converted the deep gorge behind his home on College Hill Road from a local dump into what would become Root Glen.

The primary visionary of campus design was Oren Root, Class of 1833 and a professor of mathematics, astronomy, mineralogy, and geology. He lived with his family at the crest of College Hill Road, in what is now the Anderson-Connell Alumni Center. There, with his sons, he began developing gardens to the rear of the property — including what would become Root Glen.

In 1853, Professor Root was asked to help oversee new plantings and improvements on campus. Over 100 varieties of deciduous trees were introduced, as well as 75 varieties of evergreens and 77 shrubs. The new campus landscape was completed on a limited budget: 10 men, including Root, each donated $100. A tradition of class trees (planted by each graduating class) also began. The campus became so densely vegetated that, in 1864, students petitioned for a baseball area, claiming such a clearing was necessary because the campus was “covered in trees and shrubbery.”

During this period, the College Cemetery, established ca. 1820, also became an important part of the campus landscape. Located on the eastern edge of campus, it originally had significant views to the east. In 1856, Samuel Kirkland’s body was moved from its original site and reinterred on the Hill.

A 1868 campus plan shows the addition of three buildings in a line with Buttrick Hall. Later replaced by new structures, the construction nevertheless defined what later became the Main Quadrangle, to the west of the earlier row of buildings.

Hamilton went through several difficult periods in the 19th century, and although the landscape received improvements and the student body increased somewhat in size, the overall organization and layout shown in the 1868 plan remained relatively stable. The views of surrounding farmland and distant mountains — and of the College buildings perched high on the hill from the town below — remained open; however, as some adjacent farmland was abandoned and reforested, and the many trees planted by Root began to mature, characteristic views over Clinton and the Oriskany Valley would eventually be obscured.

Campus Gothic: 1893-1942

Paul Parker, longtime professor of art, wrote an article describing the building campaign between 1893 and 1937 under presidents Melancthon Woolsey Stryker and Frederick Carlos Ferry and their respective favorite architects, Frederick Hamilton Gouge and Clement Roy Newkirk. Parker notes that new buildings maintained their connection to the traditional Hamilton campus mainly through their stone construction and overall placement, but they also adopted the contemporary Collegiate Gothic that characterized the architecture of most American universities of the period. By the 1930s, a significantly expanded and modernized Hamilton campus had been realized.

Consistent with campus planning trends of the early 20th century, the building initiative undid much of the earlier “gardenesque” plantings and paths. However, it maintained a traditional approach — laying out staggered rows of buildings — already well established. The amount of new construction around the Athletic Quad, which by 1940 included the Alumni Gymnasium and Sage Rink, swept away much of the mid-19th-century landscape.

Beatrix Farrand

The only woman among the 11 founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Beatrix Farrand designed more than 200 landscapes during her 50-year career, including those at Yale and Princeton universities, the East Garden at the White House, and the Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden.

At the behest of Elihu Root, the College contracted with Beatrix Farrand, a leading campus landscape architect, who submitted a report in 1925 that began by extolling the setting of College Hill, a “college site which [had] no equal in the writer’s experience.” Farrand went on to note:

“The main idea for beginning and end of any landscape or planting scheme should be the broad outlook over the valley which can be gained by skillful tree planting, tree pruning and tree cutting — and tree cutting of an apparently somewhat reckless character is needed if the valley views are to be kept.”

By World War II, Hamilton had attained a character consistent with other major American colleges: stone, Collegiate Gothic buildings laid out around quadrangles that were planted with ample trees, creating a shaded sanctuary. The views out of, between, and in some cases within these shaded spaces, however, were obscured over time ... as Farrand had feared.

Ben Thompson

Ben Thompson was a founding member of The Architects Collaborative, one of the most notable firms in Post-War Modernism. He later formed Benjamin Thompson Associates and designed the Kirkland College buildings along with those on a number of other campuses. He is probably best known for designing Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Nowhere was the Mid-Century Modernism trend better exemplified than at Kirkland College (designed by the architect Benjamin Thompson), which embodied a completely different approach to planning and architecture from its counterpart across College Hill Road. The other most prominent campus addition during this period was Burke Library (1972). In both cases, large, centralized concrete buildings were planned to maximize extensive and diverse uses within a single footprint. Rather than a series of buildings each with its own idiosyncratic details, these larger structures prized functionality and efficiency in a single, more complex space with almost no ornamentation. Instead they emphasized overlapping interior spaces, as well as important transitions and thresholds between interior and exterior spaces. Burke Library claimed a powerful presence on Hamilton’s historic quad. Its level window walls, scale, and open plan help the building relate to the surrounding landscape and campus fabric.

Martin’s Way was designed to be more than a path; it represents a symbolic bridge between the two campuses and across College Hill Road, reinforced by a series of shared outdoor spaces. Where the ravine of Root Glen divides the two campuses, Martin’s Way becomes a literal bridge. Beinecke Student Activities Village (1993), Sadove Student Center (2009; originally home to the Emerson Literary Society), and Johnson Center for Health and Wellness (2019), along with the surrounding landscape, reinforce the connection of Martin’s Way.

The expansion of the Kirner-Johnson Building in 2008 further closed the divide. A secondary visual and spatial connection between the two campuses is formed by Kennedy Center for Theater and the Studio Arts (2014), with its lawn amphitheater and pond, and the Wellin Museum of Art (2012). Another hallmark of this period was the expansion of recreational opportunities within the peripheral wooded and meadow areas surrounding campus. Formal trails were created in Kirkland and Root glens.

Sustainability Commitments

Learn about the steps Hamilton is taking to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Climate Action Plan
Land & Forest Stewardship Plan
Sustainability Action Plan

Hamilton also began taking greater notice of its natural resources and how to manage them, with a stormwater management study conducted in 2014 and a Forest Stewardship plan developed in 2017. The College’s interest in environmental stewardship and sustainability also extended into the campus core. In 2004, the Psi Upsilon House was remodeled and opened as the Skenandoa House. This residential space includes an environmentally friendly geothermal heating and cooling system and became the first historic building in New York State to achieve LEED certification (silver). Afterward, both the Kirner-Johnson Building and the Sadove Student Center received LEED Gold. In 2007, President Joan Stewart signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.