Denny Hall

Denny Hall is the oldest--and was originally the only--building on campus. It contained laboratories, a teaching museum for natural sciences, classrooms, 10 recital halls, faculty and regents rooms, the president's office, and a 736 seat assembly hall. The building, designed in the French Renaissance style with round turrets and candle-snuffer roofs, was built of Tenino sandstone and pressed brick. Students and faculty used it for the first time in September 1895.

It was named for Arthur Denny, the pioneer who donated 8 2/3 acres of the University's original 10-acre downtown tract. Denny Hall is now home to the the Departments of Anthropology, Classics, Germanics, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilization.

Crowning Denny Hall is the belfry containing "Varsity Bell," which was brought around the Horn of South America in the winter of 1861-62 for installation in the original Territorial University building. In its years at the downtown site the bell pealed for weddings, tolled for funerals, guided ships to safe harbor in foggy weather, warned of the anti-Chinese riots of 1886, and signalled the start of the great Seattle fire of 1889. Today, it is rung only at Homecoming.

Central Campus Tour