The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

James E. Rhoads Hall

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James E. Rhoads Hall (front facade, view from the southeast), Bryn Mawr College

Institution Name: Bryn Mawr College
Original/Historic Place Name: James E. Rhoads Hall
Location on Campus: 210 N. Merion Ave.
Date(s) of Construction:

1937-1938

original construction Thomas & Martin

Designer: Thomas & Martin
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Gothic revival (Glossary)
Significance:
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: schist

Walls: schist, limestone

Roof: slate

Function:

1938-present	dining hall
1938-present	residence hall

Narrative:
Rhoads Hall is in overall very excellent condition, and retains the vast majority of its character-defining features.

Rhoads Hall is significant as a contributing element of the ensemble of Academic Gothic buildings on the Bryn Mawr campus. As the last dormitory in that style to be built on campus, it represents the typical meeting in the period of historicism and modernism. The latter is particularly expressed in the original furnishings designed for the building, which were among the first projects of Marcel Breuer in the United States.

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.