Language Hall (Hall of Languages)

2050 Sedgwick Avenue | also 1930 Sedgwick Avenue | University Heights | built 1930

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1892

    NYU begins the Hall of Languages as part of its move from Washington Square to the Bronx

    Under Henry Mitchell MacCracken, chancellor from 1891 to 1910, New York University reorganized its schools and chose to move most programs from Washington Square to an eighteen-acre site in the Bronx. McKim, Mead & White was hired to lay out the new campus, and the Hall of Languages, built from 1892 to 1895, took its place south of the Gould Memorial Library. The Hall of Fame colonnade of 1912 later joined it at the rear to the library and the Hall of Philosophy.

    “To the south is the Hall of Languages (1892-95), and to north, the Cornelius Baker Hall of Philosophy (1892-1912).”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1894

    McKim, Mead & White give the Hall of Languages a classical Roman-brick design

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates the symmetrical building to 1894. A flight of steps with low risers and deep treads leads to an Ionic portico, and carved stone garlands frame the third-floor windows below a richly decorated cornice. The building now sits at one end of the semicircular Hall of Fame colonnade, and the Commission counted it among the finest examples of the Eclectic Roman Style.

    “At the entrance to the building there is a handsome Ionic portico... the third floor windows of this Roman brick structure are embellished with carved stone garlands.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1966

    February 15

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Hall of Languages a city landmark

    After public hearings on January 11 and February 8, 1966, with no speakers opposed, the Commission designated the Hall of Languages a landmark. In a letter of support, Dean J. W. Knedler Jr. of NYU's University College of Arts and Science backed landmarking four buildings on the campus, calling them the heart of the campus. He said the designations would also recognize McKim, Mead & White's collegiate architecture.

    “They constitute a monumental group which we regard as the heart of the campus…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 6 buildings with stories in University Heights