Old Queens
Encyclopedia
Old Queens is the oldest building at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick
, New Jersey
(USA) and the seat of the university's administration. Designed by noted architect
John McComb, Jr., Old Queens is regarded by architectural experts as one of the finest examples of Federal architecture
. Old Queens was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
on 11 May 1976 and is listed as a National Historical Landmark.
The surrounding city block is known as Old Queens Campus. This block is bound by Somerset Street to the east, George Street (north), College Avenue (south) and Hamilton Street (west), and contains several of the university's oldest buildings.
By metonymy
, Old Queens came to be used to refer to Rutgers College, and then the university.
, Alexander Hamilton
commanded a battery of artillery which fired upon British positions under the command of William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
to provide time for General George Washington
to escape south through New Brunswick
in early December 1776 following the fall of New York City
.
The heirs of John Parker, a merchant and prominent individual from Perth Amboy
donated a 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) apple orchard to Queen's College in 1808. This tract of land would become the Old Queens campus.
Old Queens was designed by John McComb, Jr. (1763-1853) a noted architect who designed the Hamilton Grange (1802) in Harlem
for Alexander Hamilton
, Castle Clinton
(1808) on Lower Manhattan's Battery Park
(1808), and the New York City Hall
(1803).
Named after Queen's College, the original name of Rutgers College, the cornerstone for Old Queens was laid on 27 April 1809 by Reverend Ira Condict
, the college's third president. The Queen for whom Queen's College was named, was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
(1744–1818), the Queen-consort of King George III
who was on the throne of the United Kingdom
when Queen's College was founded in 1766. Due to the young college's financial difficulties, the building was not completed until 1825. Classes began within the completed portions of the building as early as 1811 for Queen's College
(now Rutgers University), Queen's College Grammar School
(now Rutgers Preparatory School), and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary
. The New Brunswick Theological Seminary moved in 1856 to a new 7 acre (28,000 m²) campus less than one-half mile away, as a result of overcrowding. The Grammar School had moved across the street several years earlier in 1830.
In 1825, Colonel Henry Rutgers
, an American Revolutionary War Hero and philanthropist from New York City
gave the fledgling Queens College a $5,000 bond and a bell. The Trustees renamed the institution in honor of Colonel Rutgers. The bell, known as the Old Queens Bell, was hung in the cupola of Old Queens to chime the passing of classes. It remains there today, and is rung on special occasions, such as at Commencement exercise in May and in recognition of athletic teams who have won national conferences. The cupola was donated by Stephen Van Rensellaer in 1825.
Initially, the first floor of Old Queens served as classrooms where recitation was held, and the second floor housed the college's chapel and library. The wings on each side of the structure served as living quarters for the faculty of the College. At the time, with no dormitories (until 1890), students at Rutgers found housing within rooming houses and other off-campus locations throughout New Brunswick.
Today, Old Queens houses the offices of the university president and other top administration.
The gate outside Old Queens is the subject of a Rutgers legend. It is said that a Rutgers student should only walk through the gate on two days: convocation and graduation. One who passes through the gate on any other day during his/her undergraduate studies is said to be doomed to stay for an extra year.
in the front and sides and of local field stone in the rear, the façade of Old Queens incorporates symmetry and balance typical of Federal style architecture, and classical motifs such as Doric
pilasters, and low-height pediment
s (or tympanum
or gables
) resembling those on ancient Greek
and Roman
temples typical to the Early American period.
Old Queens boasts its original handmade glass windowpanes. The lower floor windows are 12x8, with 16x12 on the second and 12x12 third floors. In each of the gables, circular windows, typical to Federal architecture are present.
A cupola
erected in 1825, topped by a weathervane, houses the Old Queens Bell donated by Colonel Henry Rutgers
.
in 1973.
Other buildings neighboring Old Queens on the Old Queens Campus, presently include or previously included:
President's House (1841, demolished 1948 in a hurricane)
Van Nest Hall (1845)
Daniel S. Schanck Observatory (1865)
Geology Hall (1872)
Kirkpatrick Chapel (1873)
Winants Hall (1890)
The Old Queens campus is accessed through four gateways, the Henry Rutgers Baldwin Gateway (erected 1901) on College Avenue, named for Henry Rutgers Baldwin (Class of 1849), the Class of 1883 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) at the corner of George and Somerset Streets, the Class of 1882 Gateway (erected 1907) at the corner of Somerset Street and College Avenue, and the Class of 1902 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) on Hamilton Street leading to the Voorhees Mall
and the academic buildings on Rutgers University's College Avenue Campus. It is through this last gate that graduating seniors walk during Commencement exercises in May.
Located in front of Old Queens, the Class of 1877 Cannon commemorates both the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War
and several alumni who have served in the United States military. As a tradition during commencement, those graduating break clay pipes over the cannon
as a symbol of breaking ties with the memories of times of camaraderie and fellowship had during their undergraduate years.
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
(USA) and the seat of the university's administration. Designed by noted architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
John McComb, Jr., Old Queens is regarded by architectural experts as one of the finest examples of Federal architecture
Federal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
. Old Queens was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on 11 May 1976 and is listed as a National Historical Landmark.
The surrounding city block is known as Old Queens Campus. This block is bound by Somerset Street to the east, George Street (north), College Avenue (south) and Hamilton Street (west), and contains several of the university's oldest buildings.
By metonymy
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept...
, Old Queens came to be used to refer to Rutgers College, and then the university.
History
The Old Queens campus is rife with history dating several years before the construction of the Old Queens building. During the American RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
commanded a battery of artillery which fired upon British positions under the command of William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC was a British army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American War of Independence...
to provide time for General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
to escape south through New Brunswick
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
in early December 1776 following the fall of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The heirs of John Parker, a merchant and prominent individual from Perth Amboy
Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 50,814. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to Raritan Bay.-Name:The Lenape...
donated a 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) apple orchard to Queen's College in 1808. This tract of land would become the Old Queens campus.
Old Queens was designed by John McComb, Jr. (1763-1853) a noted architect who designed the Hamilton Grange (1802) in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
for Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
, Castle Clinton
Castle Clinton
Castle Clinton or Fort Clinton, once known as Castle Garden, is a circular sandstone fort now located in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York City, in the United States. It is perhaps best remembered as America's first immigration station , where more than 8 million...
(1808) on Lower Manhattan's Battery Park
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
(1808), and the New York City Hall
New York City Hall
New York City Hall is located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street. The building is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as...
(1803).
Ira Condict
Reverend Ira Condict was the third President of Queen's College serving in a pro tempore capacity from 1795 to 1810.-Biography:...
, the college's third president. The Queen for whom Queen's College was named, was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III...
(1744–1818), the Queen-consort of King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
who was on the throne of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
when Queen's College was founded in 1766. Due to the young college's financial difficulties, the building was not completed until 1825. Classes began within the completed portions of the building as early as 1811 for Queen's College
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
(now Rutgers University), Queen's College Grammar School
Rutgers Preparatory School
Rutgers Preparatory School is a private, coeducational, university preparatory day school located in Somerset, New Jersey serving students in Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade...
(now Rutgers Preparatory School), and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary
New Brunswick Theological Seminary
New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a professional and graduate school founded in 1784, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to educate ministers for the congregations of the Reformed Church in America...
. The New Brunswick Theological Seminary moved in 1856 to a new 7 acre (28,000 m²) campus less than one-half mile away, as a result of overcrowding. The Grammar School had moved across the street several years earlier in 1830.
In 1825, Colonel Henry Rutgers
Henry Rutgers
Henry Rutgers was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City, New York.-Biography:...
, an American Revolutionary War Hero and philanthropist from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
gave the fledgling Queens College a $5,000 bond and a bell. The Trustees renamed the institution in honor of Colonel Rutgers. The bell, known as the Old Queens Bell, was hung in the cupola of Old Queens to chime the passing of classes. It remains there today, and is rung on special occasions, such as at Commencement exercise in May and in recognition of athletic teams who have won national conferences. The cupola was donated by Stephen Van Rensellaer in 1825.
Initially, the first floor of Old Queens served as classrooms where recitation was held, and the second floor housed the college's chapel and library. The wings on each side of the structure served as living quarters for the faculty of the College. At the time, with no dormitories (until 1890), students at Rutgers found housing within rooming houses and other off-campus locations throughout New Brunswick.
Today, Old Queens houses the offices of the university president and other top administration.
The gate outside Old Queens is the subject of a Rutgers legend. It is said that a Rutgers student should only walk through the gate on two days: convocation and graduation. One who passes through the gate on any other day during his/her undergraduate studies is said to be doomed to stay for an extra year.
Architecture
Constructed of ashlar brownstoneBrownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
in the front and sides and of local field stone in the rear, the façade of Old Queens incorporates symmetry and balance typical of Federal style architecture, and classical motifs such as Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
pilasters, and low-height pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s (or tympanum
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
or gables
Gables
Gables may refer to:* Gables, portion of walls between the lines of sloping roofs* Ken Gables , Major League Baseball pitcher* Gables, Nebraska, an unincorporated community in the United States...
) resembling those on ancient Greek
Classical Greece
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through 4th centuries BC. This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundation of Western civilizations. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as...
and Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
temples typical to the Early American period.
Old Queens boasts its original handmade glass windowpanes. The lower floor windows are 12x8, with 16x12 on the second and 12x12 third floors. In each of the gables, circular windows, typical to Federal architecture are present.
A cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
erected in 1825, topped by a weathervane, houses the Old Queens Bell donated by Colonel Henry Rutgers
Henry Rutgers
Henry Rutgers was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City, New York.-Biography:...
.
Old Queens Campus
The Old Queens Campus as a whole was recognized with inclusion on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1973.
Other buildings neighboring Old Queens on the Old Queens Campus, presently include or previously included:
President's House (1841, demolished 1948 in a hurricane)
Van Nest Hall (1845)
Daniel S. Schanck Observatory (1865)
Geology Hall (1872)
Kirkpatrick Chapel (1873)
Winants Hall (1890)
The Old Queens campus is accessed through four gateways, the Henry Rutgers Baldwin Gateway (erected 1901) on College Avenue, named for Henry Rutgers Baldwin (Class of 1849), the Class of 1883 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) at the corner of George and Somerset Streets, the Class of 1882 Gateway (erected 1907) at the corner of Somerset Street and College Avenue, and the Class of 1902 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) on Hamilton Street leading to the Voorhees Mall
Voorhees Mall
Voorhees Mall is a large grassy area with stately shade trees on a block of about 28 acres located on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University near downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. An eclectic mix of architectural styles, Voorhees Mall is lined by many historic academic buildings...
and the academic buildings on Rutgers University's College Avenue Campus. It is through this last gate that graduating seniors walk during Commencement exercises in May.
Located in front of Old Queens, the Class of 1877 Cannon commemorates both the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War
Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War
In the dark of night on 25 April 1875, a group of ten sophomores from Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey travelled sixteen miles south to the campus of the College of New Jersey in Princeton, New Jersey and stole a cannon in what became known as the Rutgers–Princeton Cannon War...
and several alumni who have served in the United States military. As a tradition during commencement, those graduating break clay pipes over the cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
as a symbol of breaking ties with the memories of times of camaraderie and fellowship had during their undergraduate years.
Books and printed materials
- Demarest, William Henry Steele. History of Rutgers College: 1776-1924. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers College, 1924).
- History of Rutgers College: or an account of the union of Rutgers College, and the Theological Seminary of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church. Prepared and published at the request of several trustees of the College, by a trustee. (New York: Anderson & Smith, 1833).
- McCormick, Richard P. Rutgers: a Bicentennial History. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966).
- Schmidt, George P. Princeton and Rutgers: The Two Colonial Colleges of New Jersey. (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1964).