Hascall Hall is a historic institutional building located on the campus of

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Madison County, New York Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 68,016. Its county seat is Wampsville. The county is named after James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, and was ...

. It was built in 1884 and is a two-story stone building with brick trim measuring 40 feet by 70 feet. An addition was completed in 1906. The original section features a hipped roof of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

, eyebrow windows, and a large semicircular archway entrance. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photograph''
/ref> It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973 as the Old Biology Hall. It shares its

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

architectural style with the Colgate Administration Building. Probably the most significant science student ever to attend classes in this building, referred to commonly as "Old Bio", was

Oswald Avery Oswald Theodore Avery Jr. (October 21, 1877 – February 20, 1955) was a Canadian-American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller Hospital in New York City. Avery was one of the first molecu ...

, class of 1900, who discovered that DNA was responsible for the transference of genetic information while later working on carefully executed experiments at the Rockefeller Institute on specimens of pneumonia found in victims of the 1918 flu outbreak. Although not well known for his work, he is credited with one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th century. Many people confuse Crick and Watson with the discovery of DNA, but in fact they discovered the helical structure and not the existence and purpose of DNA. After Olin hall was built at the end of the Colgate quadrangle for the biological sciences, "Old Bio" was used as an art studio in the 1970s. It was slated for demolition in 1975 but students protested around the rallying cry "Save Old Bio." T-shirts for protesters to wear during protests were printed in the "Old Bio" art studios. The protests were successful and the building was preserved. The interior was later renovated, converted back into small classrooms, and renamed Hascall Hall. The building is now home to Colgate's Philosophy department.

References

School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in New York (state) University and college buildings completed in 1884 Colgate University buildings and structures National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, New York 1884 establishments in New York (state) {{MadisonCountyNY-NRHP-stub