Timeline
ca. 1750: A residence is built at 4 rue de Chevreuse. Little else is known about the property or its first inhabitants.
1793 – 1799: A small, rather unimportant porcelain factory opens at the site.
ca. 1800 – 1823: The Dagoty brothers take ownership and expand the business, making it the premier porcelain manufactory of the era.
1823 – 1833: 4 rue de Chevreuse is transformed into an orthopedic and therapeutic center..
1834: Jean-Jacques Keller and Valdemar Monod acquire the property and establish the first Protestant boarding school for boys in France, the Institut Keller.
1890: After nearly sixty years in education, the Institut closes its doors due to financial difficulties, but the Keller family retains ownership of 4 rue de Chevreuse.
1892: Reverend Dr. Morgan of The Church of the Holy Trinity leases a parcel of land (5 rue de la Grande Chaumière) from the Keller family. St Luke’s Chapel is erected on this parcel. Known as the “Little Tin Church” or “St. Luke’s in the Garden,” the chapel serves the Anglo-American colony on the Left Bank.
1893: Elisabeth Mills Reid leases 4 rue de Chevreuse from the Keller family and establishes the American Girls’ Art Club, a residence and social hub for American women studying the arts in Paris.
1911: Reid purchases the property and its adjacent parcels and finances several major construction projects: a new exhibition space (now the Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc), additional dormitory rooms (now the Institute building), and a medical clinic for students (now the Maison Verte).
1914 – 1922: During WWI, Reid converts the property into a military hospital for French and American soldiers. It also becomes the European headquarters of the Red Cross.
1922: After the war, Reid loans the property to a group of American university women led by Virginia Gildersleeve (Dean of Barnard College) who found an international residential club for women. The property also houses the Association française des femmes diplômées des universités (AFFDU) and other educational organizations.
1926 – 1927: Dorothy Flagg Leet (Barnard Class of 1917), a former secretary at the University Women’s Club, becomes Acting Director, then Director.
1928: The property is officially named Reid Hall in honor of Elisabeth Mills Reid and her husband, Whitelaw Reid.
1929: A fourth story is added to the dormitory facilities to house artists' studios and a formal dining room is opened on the ground floor. The roof of the 18th-century rue de Chevreuse building is fully refurbished.
1934: St Luke's Chapel is dismantled and religious services are no longer held on-site.
1938: After more than a decade of transformative leadership, Dorothy Leet resigns her post at Reid Hall and returns to the United States.
1939 – 1947: The University Women's Club closes during WWII and Reid Hall is placed under the supervision of the French Ministry of Education. After much discussion, the École Normale Supérieure de Sèvres is permitted to utilize 4 rue de Chevreuse through summer 1947, saving it from German occupation.
1947: Dorothy Leet resumes her directorship of Reid Hall and readies the property once more for American students. Cohorts from Smith College, University of Maryland, Yale University, and Bryn Mawr College, among others, are based at Reid Hall. Students enroll in courses at the Sorbonne, École du Louvre, and other French universities.
1951 – 1963: Reid Hall establishes its own study abroad program, the “Third Year in Paris”, conceived by Leet and Gildersleeve. The property continues to host a variety of other American institutions.
1964: Helen Rogers Reid, Elisabeth Mills Reid's daughter-in-law and president of the International Herald Tribune, gifts Reid Hall to Columbia University.
1964 – present: Columbia University far exceeded Helen Rogers Reid's expectations by developing vibrant undergraduate and graduate programs, founding a center for research and innovation, and offering dynamic public events that bridge Reid Hall's storied past with the future of academia.