Hamilton Court

Hamilton Court was Columbia's first proposed dormitory for the Morningside Heights campus. President Seth Low was against establishing a residential college, and dragged his feet when trustees and alumni raised the question of building a dormitory. In 1896, Low supported a resolution allowing the University to collect funds for the purchase of land and erection of a building. As that was happening, plans were underway to erect a private dormitory on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue between 121st and 122nd streets that would be 10 stories high and house 920 students. The plans for the building, to be named after Alexander Hamilton and funded by a corporation of stockholders who supported the College, were drawn up by the firm of Heins & LaFarge, architect of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. However, despite an enthusiastic endorsement from the New York papers, the funds were never raised, and Hamilton Court was never built.

In June 1898 Low gave in to trustee pressure (many of whom pointed out that their sons were opting to attend Harvard, Princeton, and Yale instead of Columbia because of the "college life" they offered) and agreed to have dormitories built on campus. He commissioned McKim, Mead, & White to design 4 5-story dormitories that would have been built around the Grove. Once again, Low didn't put much effort into securing funding, and the alumni who had made so much noise about erecting dormitories never organized to raise the funds.