{"nrhp_refnum":"84003183","name":"Fernow Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Cornell University campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ithaca","county":"Tompkins County","state":"NY","lat":42.44879442000007,"lon":-76.47540829499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-09-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Fernow Hall (originally the Forestry Building) is a brick classroom and office building on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, north of Tower Road. It was built in 1912-14 to designs by Green & Wicks of Buffalo.","why_significant":"The building recalls Cornell's early forestry program and is one of the buildings erected in the first decade of the New York State College of Agriculture. It is also notable as the work of the prominent Buffalo firm Green & Wicks. Its design stands out for the treatment of its central pavilions, which resemble Prairie School educational buildings, while still matching the earlier college buildings in massing, scale and materials.","narrative":"Fernow Hall is a brick teaching building on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, built in 1912-14 as the Forestry Building for the New York State College of Agriculture. Green & Wicks of Buffalo designed it, and the Durolithic Company of Buffalo built it. The state legislature had created a College of Forestry at Cornell in 1898, but it lost funding in 1903. Liberty Hyde Bailey later secured a department and a $100,000 appropriation in 1912 for this building, which was meant to start a plant industry quadrangle that was never completed. The hall is eleven bays long, with buff tapestry brick walls, limestone trim and slate roofs. Its projecting central pavilions have recessed windows and decorated brick panels. The design draws on Renaissance, Colonial and Prairie School influences. It was later named for Bernhard E. Fernow, the first director of forestry study at Cornell, and it still houses classrooms and offices.","period_of_significance":"1912-14","architect_builder":"Architect: Green & Wicks, Buffalo; Builder: Durolithic Company, Buffalo","architectural_style":"Combines Renaissance, Colonial and Prairie School influences","criteria":[],"status_note":"In use as classrooms and offices for the Department of Natural Resources; condition rated fair.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.242624-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/84003183.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003183/578282369f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003183/578282369f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Dmadeo","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornell_Fernow_Hall_September_2008.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Dmadeo</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornell_Fernow_Hall_September_2008.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315170","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernow_Hall_(Ithaca,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5445129"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/tompkins-county/fernow-hall-84003183/"}