Columbia University

The oldest college in New York State, where Alexander Hamilton studied, and the dome of Low Library is its emblem

Local name: Columbia University · Low Memorial Library

Collection: Harlem and Upper Manhattan · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

Low Library and the Alma Mater statue on the steps · Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The story

Before you is Columbia University, the oldest college in New York State. It was founded in 1754 as King’s College, under a charter from King George the Second of England. The first eight students met in a schoolhouse next to Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. Alexander Hamilton studied here. After the Revolution, in 1784, the college was renamed Columbia. In 1787 it came under a private board of trustees, and Hamilton was one of them. In 1892 the university bought the grounds of the former Bloomingdale asylum on Morningside Heights. The campus was planned by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead and White. At its center he placed Low Library, with a dome modeled on the Pantheon in Rome. It was built between 1895 and 1897. The university’s president, Seth Low, gave one million dollars for it and named the building in memory of his father. The new campus opened on the fourth of October 1897. The building did not serve as a library for long: the books ran out of room, and in 1934 they moved to a new building. Today Low Library houses the administration. On the steps sits the bronze Alma Mater by the sculptor Daniel Chester French. A small owl is hidden by her leg. Student lore says the freshman who finds it first will become the class valedictorian. Students call the steps themselves “Low Beach” and meet friends here.

Visiting

Main gate: Broadway and West 116th Street, next to the 116th Street–Columbia University station on the 1 train. The campus is private property. Since 2024 access has been limited to university ID holders and registered guests, and the rules keep changing. If the gates are closed, you can see the campus only from outside the fence.