University Hall, with its soaring Neo-Gothic tower, is the iconic symbol of University of Toledo. University Hall, Designed by the architectural firm, Mills, Rhines, Bellman, and Nordhoff and built between 1929-1931, the hall was part of the university building campaign initiated by University of Toledo president, Henry Doermann. The style of University Hall emulates the architecture of elite universities in Europe, founded in the 12th-16th centuries and which appropriated the Gothic architecture of sacred cathedrals for their secular cathedrals of learning. 

  • Gore Hall, Harvard University
  • Blair Hall, Princeton University
  • Hitchcock and Snell Halls, University of Chicago

In the nineteenth century in the United States, many established universities on the east coast, such as Harvard College (Gore Hall, 1837-41), Yale University (Farnam Hall, 1869-70)and Princeton University (Blair Hall, 1896-7), and other newly-formed universities, like the University of Chicago (1890) and Duke University(Duke Chapel, 1930-2) transformed their campuses into “Gothic wonderlands.” When he was president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson declared, “By the simple device of building our new buildings in the Tudor Gothic style we seem to have added a thousand years to the history of Princeton.” Likewise, the University of Toledo appropriated the Collegiate Gothic style to insert their institution into the prestigious lineage of elite universities in Europe and the United States.