From the Archives

Hayes Hall, constructed in the 1870s as the Erie County Almshouse, is deeply woven into the history of the region and university. After about 60 years of housings tens of thousands of the region's indigent citizens, many with disabilities, the building was converted into administrative space for the university in 1927, with its clock tower added the following year. In the late 1960s, Hayes Hall was the site of student and faculty protests related to the Vietnam War and civil rights movement. In 1977, the School of Architecture and Environmental Design, as it was then known, took occupancy of the building.