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Memorial Quadrangle
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<p>The Memorial Quadrangle is a residential <a href="/facts/Quadrangle_(architecture)/U3YuhDa7">quadrangle</a> at <a href="/facts/Yale_University/KUdS6jt1">Yale University</a> in <a href="/facts/New_Haven,_Connecticut/dRanslgz">New Haven, Connecticut</a>. Commissioned in 1917 to supply much-needed student housing for <a href="/facts/Yale_College/03WN6t69">Yale College</a>, it was Yale's first <a href="/facts/Collegiate_Gothic/LwBWjlPe">Collegiate Gothic</a> building and its first project by <a href="/facts/James_Gamble_Rogers/lf6m26W7">James Gamble Rogers</a>, who later designed ten other major buildings for the university. The Quadrangle has been occupied by <a href="/facts/Saybrook_College/k9SvRQCR">Saybrook College</a> and <a href="/facts/Branford_College/jWN6hVVI">Branford College</a>, two of the original ten <a href="/facts/Residential_colleges_of_Yale_University/Pghs4qXl">residential colleges at Yale</a>. The collegiate system of <a href="/facts/Yale_University/KUdS6jt1">Yale University</a> was largely inspired by the <a href="/facts/Oxbridge/58aFk4WY">Oxbridge</a> model of residential and teaching colleges at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Oxford/ExVVQL6V">University of Oxford</a> and the <a href="/facts/University_of_Cambridge/0la7aX9o">University of Cambridge</a> in the UK. </p><p>The building was donated by <a href="/facts/Anna_M._Harkness/WMxadp1l">Anna M. Harkness</a> to memorialize her son, Yale College graduate <a href="/facts/Charles_W._Harkness/vuCEbUgw">Charles W. Harkness</a>, who died in 1916. Charles' brother, <a href="/facts/Edward_Harkness/6LAzBAgk">Edward Harkness</a>, became the primary benefactor of Yale's <a href="/facts/Residential_colleges_of_Yale_University/Pghs4qXl">residential college system</a> fifteen years later, a scheme which required a partial reconfiguration of the Memorial Quadrangle to create its two residential colleges. <a href="/facts/Harkness_Tower/tWx4rND5">Harkness Tower</a>, a large masonry tower on the building's west side, was named in memory of Charles Harkness, a memorial to whom is found in the tower's chapel. </p>