The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

McKelvy House

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McKelvy House (exterior), Lafayette College

McKelvy House (porch detail), Lafayette College

McKelvy House (interior), Lafayette College

Institution Name: Lafayette College
Original/Historic Place Name: Oakhurst
Location on Campus: 200 High St.
Date(s) of Construction:

1888	original construction McKim, Mead & White

Designer: McKim, Mead & White
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Romanesque revival, Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, education
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation:

Walls: granite, wooden shingles

Roof: slate

Function:

ca. 1888	private residence
ca. 2004-present (2006)	residence hall (home of the College Scholars Program; student residence)

Narrative:
Designed by America's pre-eminent architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White, McKelvy House, or "Oakhurst" as it was originally named, was built in 1888 as a wedding present from John Eyerman, a Lafayette college graduate and faculty member, to his bride Lucy Maxwell. College architecture historian, Robert Mattison, writes in Lafayette College Architecture: in Context that the house "exemplifies Stick and Shingle architecture. Its overwhelming scale is belied by its asymmetrical design and by its varied use of materials--dark and light granite, shingles and slate. The granite is deliberately uneven to give the house an earthy and homemade feeling, like a Yankee stone wall." Other signature McKim, Mead & White features include elaborate wood paneling, a central hearth, and a circular porch pavilion. The house, well sited on three acres overlooking the Delaware River, once boasted formal Italian gardens with a reflecting pool. In 1914, the family of Francis G. McKelvey, a Lafayette college trustee, purchased the property and made extensive additions and several alterations. Lafayette College acquired the three-story, 22-room residence in 1960 and made it the home of the newly-formed College Scholars society, a program for academically talented students chosen by the faculty to live and work in the intellectual environment fostered in the house.

References:

Jones, Thomas E. College Hill Residential Historic District [Lafayette College]. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1991.

Mattison, Robert Saltonstall. Lafayette College Architecture: In Context. Easton, PA: Friends of Skillman Library, 1991.

Narbeth, Pamela S. "Historical Survey of the Buildings of Lafayette College." Online (2006). Lafayette College, Easton, PA. http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/special/survey/survey.html

Shear, George. Architectural Style and the Lafayette Campus. [Easton, PA: Lafayette College], 1983.

Skillman, David B. Biography of a College: Being the History of the First Century of the Life of Lafayette College. Easton, PA: Lafayette College, 1932.