From College Hall (1875) to the Vivian A. Kao ’04 Health and Counseling Center (2025), Wellesley’s buildings include a wide range of architectural styles, thoughtfully integrated into the campus’s landscape.
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1
When Wellesley opened its doors to students in 1875, College Hall was the College. At 475 feet in length, rising four stories with five-story turrets, it was one of the largest brick buildings in the United States. Founders Henry and Pauline Durant oversaw every detail of its construction and strove to surround their students with beauty. Henry was “exquisitely sensitive” to “beauty of nature, of art, of character,” Katharine Lee Bates, class of 1880, wrote after his death. (Image Courtesy of Wellesley College Archives.)
2
At the main entrance to MargaretClapp Library, visitors are welcomed by Lemnian Athena and the Hestia Giustiniani (above), statues donated by the classes of 1887 and 1888, respectively. (Illustration by Chris Wormell.)
3
The cornerstone of Tower Court was laid on Jan. 15, 1915, less than 10 months after the fire that destroyed College Hall. By the end of that September, 194 students and 12 faculty members had moved into the dormitory. (Photo of trustee Louise McCoy North, class of 1879, spreading mortar on the cornerstone courtesy of Wellesley College Archives.)
4
Green Hall is the only building in the world named for the Gilded Age investor Hetty H.R. Green. Once considered the wealthiest woman in the U.S., she was nicknamed “the witch of Wall Street” for her thrift and the somber black dress she wore in widowhood. Her children memorialized her with a $500,000 gift to the College. (Bain News Service, Publisher. Mrs. Hetty Green. , . [No Date Recorded on Caption Card] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/20146....)
5
The Jewett Arts Center, designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1958, is a pioneering example of an integrated center for the arts. Located prominently in the Academic Quad, it is celebrated for its modern architecture that complements its traditional neighbors. (Image Courtesy of Wellesley College Archives.)
6
McAfee Hall, the newest of the “New Dorms” and named after President Mildred McAfee Horton (see No. 20), opened in 1961, allowing all students to be housed on campus for the first time since the earliest days of the College. (Photo of students moving into McAfee in September 1971 by Mark Feldberg.)
7
The Keohane Sports Center is named for Nannerl “Nan” Overholser Keohane ’61, Wellesley’s president from 1981 to 1993, who, at her Wellesley Athletics Hall of Fame induction, reminisced about taking Freshman Fundamentals of Movement in Mary Hemenway Gymnasium—where students learned, among other things, “how to get out of a car in a ladylike fashion.” (Photo of President Keohane breaking ground for the new sports center in 1984 courtesy of Wellesley College Archives.)
8
The Davis Museum, the first building in North America designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo, opened in 1993 thanks to a gift from trustee Kathryn Wasserman Davis ’28 and her husband, Shelby Cullom Davis. (Photo by John Mottern.)
9
The goal of the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, designed by Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam and completed in 2005, was to reach out to the College community “in an architecture whose language is intentionally multifacing and multi-directional, centripetal and centrifugal, a beacon as much as a magnet,” Peter Fergusson, Theodora and Stanley Feldberg Professor of Art, wrote upon its opening. (Photo by Richard Howard.)
10
In 2010, Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall, home of the Theatre Studies Program and the location of major public events (such as visits by Robert Frost and Janelle Monáe, above), was renovated by award-winning architect Ann Beha ’72 and named for the College’s 12th president. (Photo by Ahana Basu ’25.)
11
Pendleton West, built in 1934 to house the chemistry department and repurposed in the 1970s for arts teaching, was transformed and expanded in 2017 into an interdisciplinary arts space. At the reopening ceremony, the vertical dance group Bandaloop performed on the exterior of the new addition. (Photo by Kimberly Maroon.)
12
The dramatic renovation of the Science Complex, the largest construction project in the College’s history, was completed in January 2022. New spaces designed to be sustainable, inclusive, and inviting were combined with important elements preserved from the 1977 Science Center. The iconic Faroll Focus, for example, features the exterior wall of old Sage Hall—and a taxidermied bison head. (Photo by Dave Burk, SOM.)
13
The newest building on campus, the Vivian A. Kao ’04 Health and Counseling Center, is Wellesley’s first all-electric building and combines health and counseling under one roof for the first time. It is on track to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification, the College’s seventh building to receive LEED certification. (Photo by Lisa Abitbol.)
14
On its way to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, Wellesley has made significant investments in energy-efficient buildings and an upgraded power plant. As of 2022, the College had reduced greenhouse gas-emissions by 50% since 2010, far ahead of the original goal of a 44% reduction by 2036. (Photo of the construction of the steam tunnel to Sage Hall in 1926 courtesy of Wellesley College Archives.)
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