20th century

Bailey Hall was constructed in 1912, according to the Greek Revival architecture design of Buffalo-based architect Edward Brodhead Green, an 1878 graduate of Cornell University. It is shaped as an amphitheatre, with a colonnaded portico wrapping around its south side, and monumental stairs leading up to 11-foot main doors.^[1]

It was built by New York state and initially intended for use by Cornell University agriculture students, but it also filled the need for a large auditorium that could be used by the entire university.^[2]

As originally configured, Bailey seated 1,948. It was described as having "acoustics by God, seats by Torquemada," a referce to its wooden seats and severely raked floor.^[2]

In 1984, Bailey Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

21st century

In 2006, the building reopened after a major rehabilitation which brought it up to modern building codes and made it handicapped-accessible, albeit at the cost of several hundred seats of audience capacity.

The road and small parking lot immediately in front of Bailey were converted into a pedestrian plaza which was opened to the public in 2007. The flagstones of the plaza are hewn from bluestone, similar to the material used to construct the Stone Row on the Arts Quad. Some of the stones were thermally treated to alter their colors to achieve a cosmetic effect.

The benches ringing the plaza extend to 300-feet in length, each having been hewn from a single Oregon Douglas fir. A fountain carved from local stone into a natural, sloping shape invoking Ithaca's gorges is featured on the southern edge of the plaza.^[3]