Campus Buildings and Facilities
Scope and Contents
A collection of materials relating to the law school campus and buildings. The collection was noted in documentation as having been artificially created but no information on where the original material came from was recorded.
Much of the collection is related to the purchase of the former Hartford Seminary Campus on Elizabeth Street in Hartford and the subsequent renovation and other construction work on the campus to ready it for the Law School. These materials include reports, drawings and significant correspondence bewtween the Dean and leadership at the Storrs campus. Materials related to the construction of a new library in 1994 are part of the collection related to the Elizabeth Street campus.
A large collection of photographs individiually cataloged by building are part of the collection. As noted, this collection was desccribed as being artificially created so the origin or provenance of the material is unknown.
A note on the photographs:
This collection contains photographs which were compiled and organized as a separate collection in the early 2000s. For the buildings collection, a two letter abbreviation was given to each building and this coding has beenmaintained. VH for the 1800 Asylum Avenue Campus and WD for the 39 Woodland Street Campus were added. In 2023, the University took possession of Mackenzie Hall which had been occupied by the Attorney General's office since the 1980s.
Building 2 letter abbreviations
VA Campus View
VB Knight
VC Avery/Starr
VD Chase (Hantranft)
VE Hosmer
VF Library (Meskill)
VG Mackenzie
VH 1800 Asylum Avenue
VJ Statuary/Architecture
WD 39 Woodland Street
The individual records for each photograph include a general notes field which contains data from the original spreadsheets of the photograph collections. This includes whether the image was black/white or color, dimensions (except for publications photographs) and the number of images in the individual envelope with this number. If available, the photographer was included.
Dates
- Creation: 1961-2017
Language of Materials
English .
Biographical / Historical
George W. Lillard and his wife, Caroline Eirmann Lillard founded the Hartford College of Law in 1921 as an independent evening law school. Classes were held five nights a week for the training of young men in the insurance business and others who wished to obtain a legal education.
Timeline of Campus Locations:
1921
October 25, 1921 the first night classes are held in rented rooms in the Hartford Wire Works building on 94 Allyn Street in downtown Hartford. The entrance requirement is a high school diploma. The College is unaccredited and the students earn a certificate at the completion of their studies. Students are not eligible to take the bar examination.
1922
February 1922, the College's office move to the old Hartford Life Insurance Company building on the corner of Asylum and Ann Streets and classes were held on the top floor of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company on 750 Main Street.
1923
The College moves all its quarters to the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company.
1926
The School moves to the Graybar building at 51 Chapel Street from 1926-1930. For the first time the building allows space for a library.
1927
First pro bono program begins, with students working in the Hartford Legal Aid Department to gain practical experience through service. This is the forerunner of the legal clinics which begin formally in 1969.
1931
The School leases new quarters at 44 Niles Street from the West Middle School, its home until 1940. The Italian-Romanesque style building was built in 1895 and designed by architect Albert W. Scoville. 1931 On June 17th, the Lillards convey all their financial interest and transfer their stock in the Hartford College of Law Corporation to a Board of Trustees. William Brosmith becomes President of the Board.
1940
The College purchases the Jacobus Mansion on 39 Woodland Street where it remains until 1964. This was the home of M.W. Jacobus, who had been Dean of the Hartford Theological Seminary 1940 George W. Lillard passes away. His portrait can be viewed in the Main Reading Room of the Starr Building.
1948
The deed to the Hartford College of Law is presented to Albert N. Jorgensen, President of the University of Connecticut, marking the the Law School's final transition from private college to public university 1964 May 1st, Law Day, the campus moves to a spacious new building at 1800 Asylum Avenue in West Hartford designed by Frederic C. Teich.
1984
Moves to current campus Elizabeth Street in Hartford. The 17-acre campus of the UConn School of Law comprises five Collegiate Gothic buildings at the former site of the Hartford Seminary. Four of the buildings were constructed in the 1920s and the fifth, the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library, was completed in 1996 with stone cut from the same quarry. The campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The library café and the patio outside it are popular gathering spots among students, faculty and staff, and the meticulously landscaped central quadrangle offers a tranquil respite for the law school community and neighbors in the West End of Hartford.
2023
The Law School takes possession of the Mackenzie building, which was the former women's dormitory for the Seminary and later held office of the Attorney General's office.
https://law.uconn.edu/student-life/life-in-hartford/ (retrieved 2023-04-17)
Full Extent
15 Linear Feet
Abstract
The collection was largely compiled by former staff in the Archives and includes documents, reports and photographs related to the various campuses and buildings the Law School inhabited since its inception in 1921. The majority of the print collection focuses on the move from 1800 Asylum to the former Hartford Seminary location on Elizabeth Street. Extensive renovation of the buildings was undertaken to make the buildings work for a law school with a full service library. An extensive collection of item-level cataloged photographs of the various buildings is included in the collection. Most of the images are of the Elizabeth Street campus but there are also many of the new library (Meskill Library), including construction photographs, and of the former campus at 1800 Asylum Street, West Hartford, Connecticut.
Arrangement
The collection is oraganized into four subgroups: Subgroup I. 1800 Asylum Street, Subgroup II. 39 Elizabeth Street, Subgroup III. Photographs, Subgroup VI. 39 Woodland Street
- Title
- Guide to the Campus Buildings and Facilities Records
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is written in: English, Latin script.
Repository Details
Part of the uconnlaw Repository
Thomas J. Meskill Law Library
39 Elizabeth Street
Hartford CT 06105
860-570-5032
archives.lawlib@uconn.edu