Austin Hall

By the late 1870s, Harvard Law School had outgrown Dane Hall, its home in Harvard Yard since 1832. Christopher Columbus Langdell LL.B. 1853, the school’s first dean, commissioned architect Henry Hobson Richardson to create a new building that featured large amphitheater-style classrooms designed for teaching using the case method, a pedagogy that Langdell originated. 

“I like the squeaking floors, the groaning of floorboards underfoot. They conspire to suggest the passage of many feet before. Austin with its vast lecture rooms, its rabbit warrens above, and odd-shaped burrows below, is always reminding one that to be a Harvard Law student is not a new thing.” 


Sabin Willett ’83, from “Austin Hall After a Century,” Harvard Law School Library, 1983

Completed in 1883, Austin Hall was the first building constructed on the law school campus, and today it is one of the oldest buildings in continuous use for law teaching in the United States.

An sepia tone image of a building with three arches with trees and grassy area in the foreground. People mingling in front of the building.
Austin Hall in 1889 Credit: Harvard University Archives
An archival photo of a reading room with students sitting at long tables reading books under dim lighting
Hitting the books in Austin Hall’s Reading Room, the location of the school’s library for almost 50 years, now the site of the Ames Courtroom Credit: Harvard Law School Historical & Special Collections
A current day photo of Austin Hall
Austin Hall’s interior and exterior details include vivid carved faces with ruggedly sketched features and stone carvings of fantastical birds and beasts. English modeler and carver John Evans (1847-1923), carefully chosen by Richardson, executed the structure’s French-inspired ornamental details.  Credit: Bob O’Connor
A group shot of a large group of students cheering in front of a building with three arches
The floral design on the building’s exterior inspired the design of Harvard Law School’s current shield. Credit: Martha Stewart

Langdell Hall

Two decades after the opening of Austin Hall, Harvard Law School Dean James Barr Ames LL.B. 1872 commissioned a new building to accommodate the law school’s growing population and library

Langdell Hall, which opened in 1907, was designed with Ionic columns reminiscent of the school’s earlier home in Dane Hall. The building was named after Christopher Columbus Langdell, dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895.

Langdell’s Caspersen Room displays rare books, manuscripts, and memorabilia documenting the history of the law.

Today, the library’s collection features over 170 languages and contains over 2 million items (physical and digital), including more than 100,000 rare books and the primary law from 240 jurisdictions across the globe, making it the most extensive academic law library in the world.

An archival photo of a Harvard Law School building in 1918 with members of a U.S. Naval Radio drill taking place in the foreground
In 1918, 11 years after Langdell opened, students heading into the library might have caught a glimpse of members of the U.S. Naval Radio School taking part in a drill on Holmes Field. Credit: Library of Congress
A tall wooden elevator stands in the middle of a large room
For many decades, a single-person elevator in the center of the Reading Room on Langdell’s fourth floor connected the circulation desk with book stacks in the basement. Credit: Anton Grassl
A view of a large room in a library with a table with seating around it in the foreground
The top of the former elevator now serves as a table close to its original location. Credit: Tony Rinaldo
A photo of Langdell Hall in the fall
In 1928 and 1929, the north and west wings were added, more than doubling the building’s space. Credit: Lorin Granger

Then & Now Harvard Law School Campus series

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