Thompson Hall, University of New Hampshire

Construction of this historic campus building began in 1891 following the gift of Benjamin Thompson's vast estate to the state of New Hampshire for the purpose of building an agricultural college. Spurred on by Thomspon's generosity, the New Hampshire College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts relocated from Hanover to Thomspon's former estate in Durham in 1893. In the first few years of operation, Thompson Hall housed all of the classrooms and laboratories in addition to the library, faculty offices, and a gymnasium. By 1907, a new library and gymnasium had been constructed, and in the decades that followed, the building's former classrooms and faculty offices were repurposed to house the university's administrative offices. New Hampshire College grew rapidly in its early decades and was renamed the University of New Hampshire in 1923. The building, known locally as "T-Hall," was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1996.

The building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style of architecture under the leadership of local architects and placed at a higher elevation on a knoll. Together with its corner turrets and central bell tower, the building was designed to signal the ambition of the new college to rival other New England institutions of higher learning. The imposing structure rests on a stone foundation, the cornerstone of which was laid in 1892. Thompson Hall, known as "T-Hall" by UNH students and faculty, is surrounded by campus buildings that followed its completion and saw the transfer of classrooms and laboratories from this space to those new structures.

The bell tower contains a Howard clock donated by the contracting firm of Dow & Randlett, along with a bell ran manually by students who pulled on one of two ropes- the first designed for hourly tolling and the second for ringing the bell to signal a fire alarm or campus event. The interior of the tower also includes the initials of several generations of UNH students who followed a campus tradition of carving their initials into the wood. For many generations of alumni, returning to campus to see their initials carved into the wooden interior of the bell tower was a pilgrimage, often accompanied by spouses met at the university whose initials might also be found in the building, hopefully, next to one another and surrounded by a heart signaling their coupling while students. The bell played a prominent role in the Student Strike of 1912, and it was also used deceptively as an attempt to sabotage rival class banquets.

United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Thompson Hall, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. September 9th, 1986. Accessed February 26th, 2023.

Thompson Hall National Register Nomination Files, 1943-1978, UA/6/1/4 Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire, accessed 2/28/2023

Specifications fo the proposed main building of the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts to be erected in Durham, N.H. pamphlet, 1892, UA 22/11, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire, accessed 2/28/2023

Reading Room Vertical Files, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire, accessed 2/28/2023