The history of college campuses in the United States begins in 1636 with the founding of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then known as New Towne. Early colonial colleges, which included not only Harvard, but also College of William & Mary, Yale University and The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), were modeled after equivalent English and Scottish institutions, but American establishments gradually split with their forebears, both physically and academically. The earliest American colleges and universities were all affiliated with different Christian denominations; Brown, for example, was founded by Baptists, while the Columbia University (then King's College) was founded by the Church of England. These religious affiliations colored the architectural texture and geographical placement of early colleges, with emphasis placed on the construction of religious facilities, and a desire for colleges to be rural, so as to avoid the vices anecdotally associated with large towns and cities. As colleges developed and increased in number, many strayed from their religious affiliations, or were founded without one. Architecturally, colleges also diversified, with different philosophies of campus planning emerging. Perhaps the most enduring style to be produced on American campuses is Collegiate Gothic, but there are diverse vernacular and local styles, such as the Arts and Crafts campus at Principia College designed by Bernard Maybeck and the Cherokee Gothic buildings at the University of Oklahoma.
Predecessor institutions
The Colonial Colleges were modeled, at least in their educational goals, on their earlier British equivalents, specifically Oxford University and Cambridge University. British institutions were mostly cloistered and modeled after earlier Monastic complexes, which were designed to be shut off from the secular world. This format was also space efficient, given that Oxford and Cambridge were established cities developing alongside their respective academies. This arrangement also provided a defensive advantage, in the event of difficulty from townspeople or warfare. Oxford experienced such tension early in its history, and after issues between local citizens and the university, some departed to found what would become Cambridge. Oxford and Cambridge were separated into smaller colleges, which were organized around green spaces. American colleges diverged in their use of space; few of the earliest colleges were organized in ways similar to English institutions. Americans also differed in their educational practices. Oxford and Cambridge were, during the British colonization of North America, liberal relative to their American counterparts, which were founded as religious institutions.
Colonial colleges The word campus was first used in reference to Princeton's original building and the land that separated it from the neighboring town. The term comes from the Latin, meaning a field. Although the term originally referred only to the unique green spaces that characterized American colleges, it later came to refer to the whole property. Sources note the speed with which colonists founded their colleges, suggesting the importance of education to early Americans. The first established was Harvard University, and, along with William and Mary, and Princeton, their importance was further suggested by the massive edifices they erected, with several different schools claiming the largest building in the British colonies. Most of the thirteen original colonies had institutions, and most were located in rural settings, originally to educate and convert Native Americans, and later due to American skepticism of cities as centers of vice and the appeal of nature as an opposing locale devoid of temptation.
Campus organization
Although Oxford and Cambridge diverged slightly in terms of architectural styles, the colonial colleges did so to a much greater degree. Harvard was originally a single building, which was later expanded to four, forming an open quadrangle (the buildings were freestanding) that represented a union between Puritan ideals and the designs of Oxford and Cambridge. By the end of the colonial period, additional buildings formed a row of sorts, made more welcoming than enclosed quadrangles in England by the separation of buildings, an American innovation made necessary by fear of fire, something absent in England due to the use of masonry and stone, not wood, in construction. William and Mary's campus design similarly rejected the enclosed quadrangle, and was originally a single building that burned, to be replaced later by a single structure, the Wren Building, named for its purported designer Christopher Wren. The newer building was three sided, open on the fourth, in a style favored by Wren; he disliked four sided, monastic-style constructions. Later, there were small additions to the campus in the form of two structures, a house for the college president and the so-called "Indian School", making the campus resemble an English country estate, similar to those inspired by the work of architect Andrea Palladio. As with William and Mary, Princeton was organized around a single building, and unlike William and Mary, few additions were made to the campus during the colonial period. The building, Nassau Hall, was considered to be one of the most imposing and largest in colonial America, and was widely reproduced by other schools in later years – such is the case with University Hall at Brown, for example. Yale's early plans were equally influential. Entirely rejecting the quadrangle, Yale's first buildings were narrow, and aligned in a row, forming a wall facing the town of New Haven.
Expansion and diversification
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