Elmira College Old Campus

Elmira College Old Campus is a twelve-acre cluster of nine buildings at the southwest end of the college grounds in Elmira, New York. The buildings, dating from 1855 to 1927, sit in a park-like setting around a one-acre pond. Cowles Hall, the original building, follows an octagonal plan and once held the entire college. Later additions include Gillett Hall, Fassett Commons, Carnegie Science Hall, and the Collegiate Gothic Hamilton and Tompkins Halls. Hamilton House, a circa 1870 residence, became a dormitory, and Mark Twain's Study, built in 1874 and moved here from Quarry Farm in 1952, completes the group. The district was listed because the college, chartered in 1855, was the first to give women admission and degree requirements equal to those of men's colleges, and it served as a model for later institutions. The buildings also show the college's growth over roughly seventy years in a variety of styles with little exterior change. Only Alumni Dormitory, built in 1959, is non-contributing.