Bagley Hall

Bagley Hall is home to the Department of Chemistry. In 1937, it was dedicated to the Reverend Daniel Bagley, a farsighted pioneer Methodist minister with a flair for wheeling and dealing. He was literally "egged" out of Peoria, Illinois, for preaching unpopular antislavery sentiments in the 1850s.

After he settled with his family in Seattle, he and several cohorts persuaded the state legislature to include Seattle as one possible site for the proposed Territorial University. Then he convinced the city fathers that a university in the then insignificant village of Seattle would be a commercial plum far sweeter than having the state capitol, mental hospital, or penitentiary.

When Arthur Denny donated 8 2/3 acres of choice land, Bagley prevailed upon Charles and Mary Terry and Edward Lander to contribute an adjacent 1 1/3 acres. This 10-acre site, still owned by the university, is now known as the Metropolitan Tract.

The original university building stood where today you find the Four Seasons-Olympic Hotel. Although in later years Bagley was referred to as "the father of the university," he preferred to call himself "the man who stole the university for Seattle."

Central Campus Tour