NYU History Lesson: When We Actually Had a Campus (In The Bronx)

By Sara Trigoboff

Ever look inside the cover of some obscure, dusty book in Bobst? Okay, maybe you haven’t, but if you did, you might have seen the label “Property of University Heights Campus.” That’s right — “campus.” Sound it out now.

This “campus” was located in University Heights (now home to the Bronx Community College in the west Bronx) and originally built in the late 1800’s as Renaissance buildings. The structures were designed by Stanford White, who besides having an awesome mustache, was murdered in 1906 by the millionaire husband of his actress girlfriend, Evelyn Nesbit, which somehow led to “the trial of the century”and inspired E.L Doctorow’s “Ragtime.” He also designed the Bowery Savings Bank (Bowery & Grand), the second Madison Square Garden and the Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square South.

According to this 1894 New York Tribune article, the original University Heights campus was designed to house NYU’s undergraduate program, featuring a Hall of Languages believed to be unique in providing each professor with both an office and classroom. It also included departmental libraries and, in the words of the Tribune, an especially fine “Oriental collection — the de Lagarde library, believed to be the finest in America.

In typical fashion, NYU totally tricked the campus out in the early 20th century, building a steam engine so that all buildings would be heated and lighted. The campus also hosted the Havemeyer Laboratory of Chemistry, a modern facility with several floors of laboratories, and Ohio Field, where some team named the Violets played some sport called football.

Some students and faculty lived on-campus in Charles Butler Hall, named for a longtime New York City council member who had fought for the undergraduate school when it was only a few votes away from being abolished. The mansion was a reconstruction of the old Mali Mansion, built by Henri H.T. Mali, the original land owner. The apartments rented between $50 and $175 per year, which is now about what a Bobst locker goes for.

And of course, where there is a real college campus, there is a Greek life. Psi Upsilon, Zeta Psi and Phi Gamma all built chapter houses on land leased from NYU. If you want to go check out how NYU undergrads lived for the better part of our history, be sure to check out the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx Community College campus — a true oddity. Founded in 1900 by the then Chancellor of NYU Mitchell MacCracken (almost as good as J-Sex), it was also designed by Stanford White. Its principal feature is the Colonnade, which houses bronze portrait busts of honored “Great Americans.” The Hall of Fame is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission is free. If you don’t feel like taking the train that far uptown, you could just check out this awesome virtual tour.

So why the hell are we in Greenwich Village? While the new campus increased NYU’s prestige and helped lead to the opening of the School of Commerce (a.k.a. Stern — yes Sternies, you came after C.A.S) and an expanded School of Dentistry, NYU had more than 40,000 students by the late 1940’s. The growth proved difficult to sustain and the University Heights campus was sold to the City in 1973 during financial difficulties. The undergraduate college was subsequently moved to Washington Square.

Eventually, the money from University Heights and the sale of the C.F. Mueller Pasta Company — NYU investment FTW — helped the NYU administration refurbish the Washington Square campus. Goodbye football and frats and classical architecture. Hello tenuous relationship with the Village!

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