The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Radnor Hall

Click on image titles for larger views.

Radnor Hall (three-quarter view, from the south), Bryn Mawr College

Institution Name: Bryn Mawr College
Original/Historic Place Name: Radnor Hall
Location on Campus: 820 New Gulph Rd.
Date(s) of Construction:

1885-1887

original construction Cope & Stewardson

Designer: Cope & Stewardson
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Gothic revival, Victorian, Other (Glossary)
Significance:
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: schist

Walls: schist, limestone

Roof: slate

Function:

1887-present

residence hall

Narrative:
Radnor Hall is in overall very good condition, and retains its original exterior envelope and use. Like all dormitories, it has sustained regular minor alterations for system upgrades and finishes renewal. It does not retain its original windows; its original casements were replaced in 1951.

Radnor is significant as one of the earliest commissions of the architecture firm of Cope & Stewardson, and marks the beginning of the shift from the free Gothic style of the previous generation's work, as epitomized in Addison Hutton's designs, toward the more archaeological approach that would become one of the hallmarks of their own work as campus architecture specialists.

References:

Andropogon Associates, and Emily Cooperman. Bryn Mawr College Campus Heritage Initiative, Funded by the J. Paul Getty Initiative. Report. Philadelphia, PA: Andropogon Associates, Ltd., 2004.

Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. New York: Knopf, 1984.

Webb, Leslie A. Bryn Mawr College Historic District. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1984.