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Seabury Hall (Original Campus)

Seabury Hall, 1877. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

Seabury Hall (also known as the Chapel) was one of the original buildings of Washington College on the original campus, the other being Jarvis Hall. In addition to serving as the original chapel for the college, Seabury Hall housed recitation rooms, offices, a library, and the cabinet.

According to Trinity tradition, the building was designed by Samuel F. B. Morse, who later invented the telegraph. When the Chapel, as it was known at the time, was completed in 1825, it consisted of three stories with a portico entrance marked by Ionic columns and a bell tower at the rear of the structure.

Trinity College Old Campus, View from northeast of the columns of Seabury Hall (1825-1878) during demolition in 1878. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

The building was constructed of brownstone in the Greek Revival style and was 87 feet long and 55 feet wide. The chapel's space was actually a 50 by 35-foot room within the building; an organ was installed in 1850. The Chapel was renamed Seabury Hall in 1845 after Samuel Seabury, the first Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut.

By the 1860s, the College Trustees were discussing plans to build a new chapel, as the existing one was deemed too small. These plans never came to fruition, though the existing chapel was slightly refurbished in 1873 with a new carpet and cushions. At that time, however, College officials had already enacted plans to move the campus. By the middle of 1872, the land on which the College was located was sold to the State of Connecticut for the construction of a new capitol building. That same year, Trinity's Trustees purchased the land which the Summit Campus now occupies.

In the summer of 1878, Seabury Hall on the old campus was demolished, and one of the first Long Walk buildings constructed on the new Summit Campus was given the name Seabury.


Sources

The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 27, 36, 135, 154, 176-177, 186.


seabury_hall_old_campus.1683918698.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/05/12 19:11 by bant06