On Hewitt Quadrangle, Woolsey Hall serves as Yale's primary auditorium, designed by Carrère and Hastings for the university's bicentennial celebration in 1901. Built as part of the Bicentennial Buildings complex for Yale's bicentennial celebration in 1901, Woolsey Hall was designed by the Beaux-Arts firm Carrère and Hastings. With approximately 2,650 seats it is the university's largest auditorium, a place that hosts concerts, performances, and university ceremonies including the annual freshman convocation, senior baccalaureate, and presidential inaugurations.
The building bears the name of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, who served as President of Yale from 1846 through 1871. In the broader sweep of Yale's growth, the 19th century saw the university become one of the largest higher education institutions in the world, adding seven graduate and professional schools alongside the undergraduate college founded in 1701. Though Yale was nominally organized as a university in 1887, its schools remained mostly independent, and by 1896 university leaders were taking steps to unify the new university — one of the impulses that produced this monumental hall.
Notice the roughly 2,650 seats that have hosted freshman convocations, baccalaureates, and presidential inaugurations, named for Theodore Dwight Woolsey, Yale's president from 1846 to 1871.