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Constructed: 1889
Architect: Warren H. Hayes of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Contractor: Henry Hoffman and Jack Hackworthy of Appleton
Named for: David Green Ormsby, businessman and Lawrence trustee, 1885-1894
Ormsby Hall was the first residence hall constructed on the campus. It joined two other buildings, Main Hall and the President's residence in the fall of 1889. According to Marguerite Schumann, President Elias DeWitt Huntley wrote "Give us a Ladies' Building and you will hear no more about lawlessness at Lawrence," but it was his successor, Bradford Paul Raymond, who brought the idea of a women’s residence hall to fruition. Prior to the completion of Ormsby, all students, male and female, lived in town with families and College officials could not monitor student behavior as they wanted.
Built at a cost of $30,000, Ormsby Hall provided rooms for sixty young women, the preceptress, and the first assistant lady teacher. It included a music room that also doubled as a prayer meeting room, a music practice room, a gymnasium, and rooms for the women's literary societies. The basement provided a dining area that seated sixty; it served meals to all Lawrence students until Colman Hall was completed in 1956.
David Green Ormsby, a Milwaukee businessman engaged in lime kiln and brass and iron production and Board of Trustees member, contributed stock valued at $12,000 toward the construction of the new hall. Constructed of brick and stone, it had indoor plumbing, steam heat and gas lighting. Electric lighting was installed in 1895. A large porch appears on the building in photographs from the nineteen-teens through the nineteen-fifties. This porch may have been added in 1906 when the building received a $14,000 addition that provided rooms for fifty more women. At the same time, the women's' literary societies moved to the new Carnegie Library, vacating space on the top floor for more student rooms.
In 1972, Lawrence received a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant of $561,000 to renovate Ormsby. This renovation brought mechanical, electrical and heating systems up to code and added some lounge space. A University press release remarked that "because students expressed a preference for retention of the residence hall’s old furnishings, the old desks, beds and other furnishings will be retained in the renovated building."
Today, Ormsby Hall provides housing for 120 students, most of them women.