A National Historic Chemical Landmark: Havemeyer Hall

Havemeyer Hall

Havemeyer Hall
Pioneers in Chemistry at Columbia
The Chandler Chemical Museum
Further Reading

Havemeyer Hall was built between 1896 and 1898 under the leadership of Charles Frederick Chandler. It provided research and teaching facilities for faculty and students specializing in industrial, inorganic, organic, physical, and biological chemistry. Pioneering research done here led to the discovery of deuterium, for which Harold Clayton Urey received the Nobel Prize in 1934. Six others who did research here subsequently received the Nobel Prize, including Irving Langmuir, the first industrial chemist to be so honored, in 1932. The grand lecture hall in the center of Havemeyer remains the signature architectural feature of Charles Follen McKimås original design.

Havemeyer Hall
One of the six original buildings designed and built on what is now known as Morningside Heights, on the third and current campus of Columbia University, Havemeyer Hall opened its doors to classes and laboratories in the fall of 1898. Charles Frederick Chandler, former President of the Health Department of New York City, leading industrial chemist, and noted educator and professor of chemistry at Columbia, was largely responsible for the construction of the building. Funds were provided by Chandler's close friend, Theodore Havemeyer (Columbia School of Mines, class of 1868), of the family long identified with the sugar industry in America, to honor his father, Frederick Christian Havemeyer (Columbia College, class of 1825). The building still carries the Havemeyer name, though an extension, constructed in 1927, is called the Chandler Laboratories.

Havemeyer Hall reflects the brilliance and style of Charles Follen McKim, founding partner of McKim, Mead, and White, then one of New York's most important architectural firms. His designs transformed the Columbia campus into one of the city's great monuments of the American Renaissance. The interior of this imposing red brick and limestone-trimmed structure is distinguished by a grand lecture hall, Room 309. The windows were originally of French plate glass. All the corridors in the building are still tiled in the original mosaic. The main entrance to Havemeyer is found on the third floor, at the campus level. Two lower floors, originally housing the operations laboratory and engineering chemistry, are now occupied by research and teaching space for physical chemistry.

Chemistry in the United States at the Turn of the Century
By the mid-19th century, science was established in the college curriculum in the United States through the founding of schools such as the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, and the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard. Columbia University's School of Mines, the first in the country, was established in 1864.Û (It is now a department in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.) Graduate schools began to appear in the United States that imitated the German university system. By the end of the century, respectable programs for graduate study in chemistry were developing at The Johns Hopkins University, The University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and other schools. At Columbia, between 1898 and 1938, the chemistry department granted more Ph.D.'s than any other in the country.Û Today, the department continues to graduate about 20 Ph.D.'s a year.

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