Bailey Hall
Bailey Hall, designed by Edward B. Green, who graduate from Cornell in 1878, was first used in June of 1913. Today the hall is named after Liberty Hyde Bailey (1856-1954), the first Dean of the College of Agriculture. As Parsons notes in The Cornell Campus, "Liberty Hyde Bailey supplied most of the initiative and a great deal of the drive and intelligence behind the expansion of the Cornell College of Agriculture between 1903 and 1913."
Bailey Hall Over the Years
Bailey Hall has been a part of the campus and the community for 94 years. Originally built for the use of state college students, it filled an urgent need for an auditorium for the whole campus.
There has been a long, distinguished list of classical musicians and singers who have performed at Bailey Hall including among others: Paul Robeson, Marion Anderson, Issac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolph Serkin, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, and Luciano Pavarotti.
Bailey Hall has been put to some unusual uses over the years when space has been tight. Plant Pathology was housed in the basement of Bailey Hall for a time in the 1920s. The Cornell Federal Credit Union was around the back for several years.
Works Cited
- Parsons, Kermit. The Cornell Campus: A History of Its Planning and Development. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1968.
- Bishop, Morris. A History of Cornell. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962.
The Rehabilitation of Bailey Hall
Someone once described Bailey Hall as: "acoustics by God, seats by Torquemada." The renovation, which includes the points below, has remedied the second and improved on the first.
- wider, cushioned seats in the auditorium with aisle lighting
- acoustical panels in the auditorium to enhance different types of acoustical performances ranging from lectures, soloist musician, orchestra, theatrical performance to rock concerts
- state of the art audio/visual and lighting systems
- new 9' Steinway D Grand Piano
- addition of green room, dressing rooms and rehearsal room
- new HVAC units to provide heating and cooling with separate controls for the stage, dressing/green room, orchestra and balcony
- handicapped accessible entrance ways (2), two new elevators and one handicapped lift (building is now ADA compliant)
- new restrooms
- building security system
- wireless technology in the auditorium
- internet access with two-way video streaming
- restoration of the exterior
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