Rising above you here in Ann Arbor is Angell Hall, the University of Michigan's academic anchor. Named in honor of James Burrill Angell, who served as the university’s president from 1871 to 1909, this building was begun in 1920 and finished in 1924 at a cost of about $1 million. Once connected to the old University Hall, Angell now links physically and historically to Mason Hall and Haven Hall — Mason Hall itself named for Stevens T. Mason, Michigan’s first governor, and Haven Hall named for Erastus O. Haven, the university’s second president.
Tisch Hall, named for donors Preston and Joan Tisch, is also connected to Angell. Look up to the fifth-floor roof where the Angell Hall Observatory sits; its main telescope is a 0.4-m (16-inch) Ritchey-Chretien reflector equipped with a spectrograph and camera, and the observatory also houses a small radio telescope and 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrains. An addition opened in 1952, adding auditoriums, a classroom wing, and an office wing, replacing old Haven Hall destroyed by fire in 1950, the 1841 Mason Hall, and two other buildings.
Picture March 24, 1965, when students here launched the very first teach-in, its energy still echoing beneath the observatory and the connected halls.