Framed today by the Van Wickle Gates, your University Hall rose in 1770 as Brown's first college building. Built in 1770, it is one of only seven extant college buildings constructed in the United States before the American Revolution. Architectural historian Bryant F. Tolles Jr. called the structure "one of the genuine icons of early American collegiate architecture." It occupies a central part of the university's front campus and is framed by the Van Wickle Gates.
Originally known as the College Edifice, the building was constructed on land that had belonged to Chad Brown (c. 1600–1650), an original Brown family ancestor and co-founder of Providence. The first reference to the building appears on September 5, 1765, at the second meeting of the Corporation in Newport. Subsequent Corporation meetings organized a building committee that included Stephen Hopkins and Joseph Brown; plans were finalized on February 9, 1770. On February 17 the building committee placed a notice in the Providence Gazette soliciting donations of timber and other...
Notice the Van Wickle Gates framing the front campus beyond it.