You are here

Merion Hall

-A A +A
1884–1885, Addison Hutton

The campus plan laid out by Vaux and Olmsted (Calvert Vaux had relatives living across the street from the campus) established the campus hierarchy. Like a Victorian matron followed by her children, Taylor Hall is in front and it preceded a row of smaller buildings—the dormitory (Merion), a small gymnasium, and a power plant (the last two demolished). Merion Hall was modeled on the college house system of Smith College and was the first of the buildings named for Welsh counties. Its simpler massing and domestic Queen Anne detail placed the residential component of academia in striking contrast with contemporary campus planning that now sells lifestyle first with academics more subtly expressed.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Merion Hall", [, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-MO9.2.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 194-194.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,