Stop 3 of 6
Clark Hall
A Bigger Building
Audio guide — Stop 3: Clark Hall (3:33)
The narration follows the text and image descriptions on this page.
When the Law School outgrew Minor Hall in just twenty years, plans for the school’s next home reached a new scale of ambition. Enrollment was skyrocketing, bolstered by the law program’s expansion from two to three years. One option: expand the school’s current home at Minor. UVA leadership doubted this renovation would meet the Law School’s long-term needs, and they moved to another plan: an entirely new building.
University architects soon conceived of Clark Hall as a self-sufficient law village, with classrooms, a library, and dining facilities. Architectural references to the Academical Village would temper this independence. An early design for Clark included a domed roof and triangular pediment in homage to the Rotunda. The final building, completed in 1932, adopted a pyramidal roof that nodded to the Rotunda without imitating it and embraced a broader language of monumentality, drawing particular inspiration from the Lincoln Memorial.
Proposal for Clark Memorial Hall by architect R. E. Lee Taylor, 1930, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, UVA.
Image description
A large architectural rendering of a grand classical building, seen from the front. The central section features a large dome, tall columns, and a triangular pediment that closely echoes the Rotunda.
Proposed addition to Minor Hall by UVA’s Architectural Commission, 1930, UVA Law Library.
Image description
An architectural drawing showing a substantial new wing proposed as an attachment to Minor Hall. The addition creates an asymmetrical composition, with the new section projecting prominently beyond the original structure. Large windows and a prominent entrance distinguish the addition, which was intended to house an expanded law library.
In these two proposals, notice:
- The Minor Hall addition proposed rare architectural asymmetry on Grounds. The new wing, designated for the law library, had a second façade that rivaled the main Law School entrance.
- The monumental features of the proposed new building closely resembled the Rotunda. Planners rejected this design for fear it would overshadow the Rotunda’s prominence.
- Both echoed Jeffersonian architecture. White columns and red brick helped these large, proposed buildings blend with Central Grounds’s historic core.
- Both included multistory entryways. Architects intended these spaces for planned large-scale murals. In the Minor addition, murals would have adorned the library. They were ultimately installed in Clark’s Mural Hall.
What was built
Clark Memorial Hall, circa 1942, UVA Law Library.
Image description
A photograph of the completed Clark Hall from around 1942, viewed from the front. The building is organized around a prominent central block with a broad entrance supported by tall white columns and topped by a pyramidal roof. Lower wings extend symmetrically from both sides and are connected to the main building by arcaded walkways.
The rediscovered Architectural Commission drawings shown here are the subject of a conversation with historian Philip Mills Herrington.