Horchow Hall — 1859

History

Standing at the corner of Hillhouse Avenue and Sachem Streets, the Tuscan-style villa now known as Horchow Hall was built in 1859 for Pelatiah Perit, a New York merchant and Yale alumnus. The façade is brick, covered in stucco, and features detailed carvings on the capitals, eaves and portico. Sometime after 1888, the villa’s second owner, Henry L. Hotchkiss, constructed a large addition in the rear of the house, which included an elaborately decorated library, used today as a conference room. The building remained in the Hotchkiss family until 1931, when the University purchased it to create an annex for the Peabody Museum and the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory. In 1960, the building changed uses again, serving as a faculty residence until 1984. In that year, an extensive renovation repaired and restored the Perit House for the School of Management. Today, it holds the School of Management Admissions Office, faculty offices and seminar rooms. Interior and exterior improvements undertaken in 1999 and 2003 have reconstructed and refurbished facilities, repaired the roof and updated the building to accommodate the offices now located there.

Did You Know?

The Perit House was the first house on Hillhouse Avenue to be painted brown. The architect’s daughter is the author of the popular Five Little Peppers series of children’s books.