Converse Hall has housed students since 1895. Built in 1895, it is one of the oldest buildings on the campus of the University of Vermont that has been continuously used as a residential dormitory. A rare example in the state of Chateauesque architecture, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Designed by the Wilson Brothers firm during a period of the university’s rapid growth that echoed the city’s own expansion, the hall presents a deliberate, ornate silhouette. You can study its U-shaped plan, rising 4½ stories with the open side of the U turned west toward the central campus area. The exterior is finished in Vermont marble, and sash windows are arranged singly and in pairs in plain rectangular openings.
Each wing projects near the center, producing cruciform roof lines; gable ends are dressed with finials and turrets, and the roofs are dotted with attic and wall dormers that carry those same gable shapes. The site, somewhat isolated when the hall was built, is now dominated to the north by the University of Vermont Medical Center. Vermont marble covers this dormitory you're facing, its turrets rising just south of the medical center that now dominates the site.