Then and Now: Hale Science Building

Name: Hale Science Building

Year Built: 1893

Architect: Varian & Sterner; east and west wings built in 1910 by Gove & Walsh

Formerly Housed: Hale was the first science building on campus and at one point housed all the sciences, a small museum and the School of Law. The building was named after the second university president, Horace Hale.

Today: The Department of Anthropology

Once Upon a Time: When the building was being designed, the university’s regents wished to make Hale the most thoroughly equipped scientific building in the country. Rather than the typical construction with iron nails, brackets and hinges, all the metal in the building consisted of brass so that magnetic interference would not distort radio signals or transmission experiments.

Did You Know: The university’s first Natural History Museum was originally housed on the third floor of the Hale Building until it moved into its current home in the Henderson Building in 1937.

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Information and historic photos courtesy of CU Heritage Center; Colored photos by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado and Julia Tortoisehugger