Comstock Hall
Why it's listed
Comstock Hall is a brick academic building on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, built in 1911-12 as the Home Economics Building. It rises three stories above a high basement, with a fourth story inside its slate-covered hipped roofs. Walls of buff tapestry brick are trimmed with limestone, and the center of the south facade has a limestone porch with Tuscan columns and large semicircular-arched windows. The building was funded by the state legislature for the Department of Home Economics, created in 1907 under Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose. It held classrooms, a library, an assembly room, a practice apartment and a cafeteria. Plans and elevations came from Cornell architecture faculty members Martin, Hebrard and Young, while the Buffalo firm Green & Wicks prepared working drawings and supervised construction. Its design blends Renaissance formality with Arts and Crafts details and respects the earlier College of Agriculture buildings. It is now named for naturalists Anna Botsford Comstock and John Henry Comstock and houses the Department of Entomology.
Significance in brief: It was built for Cornell's Department of Home Economics, established in 1907 within the College of Agriculture, and housed classrooms, a library, an assembly room, a practice apartment and a cafeteria. Architecturally, it combines Renaissance formality with Arts and Crafts brickwork and eaves detailing, with Mannerist treatment of the central windows. It was designed by well-regarded architects and fits the scale and materials of the earlier college buildings.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 84003122, listed September 24, 1984. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Cornell University campus, Ithaca |
|---|---|
| County | Tompkins County |
| Listed | September 24, 1984 |
| Reference number | 84003122 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architect / builder | Architects Martin, Hebrard & Young (plans and elevations) and Green & Wicks (working drawings, specifications, construction supervision); builder Durolithic Company, Buffalo |
| Architectural style | Renaissance-based design with Mannerist window treatment and Arts and Crafts elements, in keeping with Beaux-Arts eclecticism |
| Areas of significance | Education, Architecture |
| Level of significance | National |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still used for classrooms, offices, laboratories and a department library, serving the Department of Entomology; condition listed as fair, with some alterations to the fourth-story loggia, central stairway and basement cafeteria. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 42.44960, -76.47895 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 84003122.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q28126062
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.