President's House — 1871

History

Constructed in 1871, 43 Hillhouse was designed for Henry Farnam, an engineer of the Farmington Canal. Farnam settled in New Haven after making his fortune, and his High Victorian Gothic mansion, with characteristic gables and turrets, was the first Gothic building ever constructed on the Avenue. A great Yale benefactor, Farnam also donated the funds for the Old Campus dormitory that bears his name.

Upon his death in 1883, Farnam bequeathed the building to the University, which took possession in 1934. By that time, Victorian Gothic architecture had gone out of style.  In 1937, under the direction of then University President Charles Seymour, the building received a full renovation and a Georgian Revival-style facelift, rendering it almost unrecognizable. Though aesthetically divergent from the original Farnam home, the structure has served as the home of the Yale presidents ever since.