Sage Residential College

Sage Residential College, Sage College or Sage Hall was built in 1875 at Cornell University's Ithaca, New York campus. It was originally designed to be a residential building, however, currently it houses the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Its design was based upon that of the Dinosaur Hall at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History.

Conception

Sage Hall was built more than a century ago, financed by an Ithaca businessman, Henry W. Sage, to advance a revolutionary concept at the time. "When you are ready to carry out the idea of educating young women as thoroughly as young men," Sage told his friend, Ezra Cornell in 1868, "I will provide the endowment to enable you to do so."

With Sage's $250,000 donation, construction started four years later under the guidance of professor of architecture Charles Babcock. In 1875, Sage College welcomed Cornell's first 25 female students, making the university a pioneer in coeducation and attracting a swarm of applications. Early graduates included two college presidents, Julia Josephine Thomas Irvine (Wellesley) and Martha Carey Thomas (Bryn Mawr); a prominent women's suffragist, Harriet May Mills; a publisher and author, Ruth Putnam; and the noted Cornell professor and scientist, Anna Botsford Comstock.

Facilities

When the building opened, it offered some of the most luxurious accommodations of any college dormitory in the United States. Residents had access to a swimming pool, gym, botanical conservatory, indoor plumbing, and luscious furnishings. Additionally, the building contained features that defined it as a residential college as opposed to a traditional dormitory such as a dining hall, classrooms, a library, and professorial offices. It had the ability to house up to 120 students.

In the 1930's, Sage went co-ed along with the most of the rest of Cornell's dormitories. As most University-run student housing was consolidated into the West and North Campus areas, Sage became something of an anomaly: it was the only student living facility in the central campus area, and the only building that combined living and classroom space. While Sage rooms were spacious compared to other dorms, by the 1990s the facility was significantly run down, as the University, which planned to transform the entire building into classroom space, did little more than basic maintenance. The 1994-1995 school year was the last in which Sage housed students.

Later years

Between April 1996 and August 1998, the university untertook a massive renovation of Sage Hall, at the cost of $38 million, to convert the building into the new home for the Johnson Graduate School of Management. The building's iconic spire that had been removed years before was rebuilt. A glass ceiling was constructed over the inner courtyard changing it into an atrium. The design of that space was influenced by "Dinosaur Hall" at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Interestingly, Babcock's original design of Sage Hall had been influenced by that same museum's design.

Notable alumnae

* Anna Botsford Comstock - professor and scientist, namesake of Cornell's Comstock Hall
* Julia Josephine Thomas Irvine - fourth president of Wellesley College
* Harriet May Mills - women's suffragist
* Ruth Putnam - publisher and author
* M. Carey Thomas - first president of Bryn Mawr College

External links

* [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra-exhibit/additions/sage.html 1873 Sage cornerstone letter, written by Ezra Cornell]
* [http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/facilities/sagehall/ The Johnson School's page about Sage Hall]