page_title: William Tinsley (architect)
section_title: Bascom Hall
hierarchical_section_title: William Tinsley (architect) / United States / Bascom Hall
caption_attribution_description: English: Bascom Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
context_page_description: William Tinsley was an Irish architect who immigrated to the United States in 1851. He and his family settled in Cincinnati where Tinsley received commissions to design several prestigious buildings in the Midwestern United States.
context_section_description: Originally known as Main Hall, Bascom Hall opened in 1859 as the first entirely instructional building on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The building was expanded through additions in 1899, 1905 and 1927. The building originally featured a towering dome until 1916 when it burned down. The dome was never replaced. In a report from the University Regents in 1856, the building was described as such: "This building is designed for public restrooms, for recitation, lecture, library cabinet, apparatus. It will contain also, the astronomical observatory, the working laboratory, apartments suitable to the residence of two families of the faculty, the principal dining hall for the use of Students, and a chapel. All the departments in Science, Literature and Arts and in the professional schools of Medicine and Law will find ample accommodation in the proposed edifice."
  Today the building stands as the iconic centerpiece of the UW-Madison campus and is home to the office of the Chancellor of the University, the Dean of Students and other administrators. The building also does still include a limited number of classrooms as well as two large lecture halls.
caption: Bascom Hall in its present state.
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