The first architect of Lehigh University was Edward T. Potter, serving from 1865 to 1871, who conceived a general building plan for the campus.  Founder, Asa Packer, bought fifty-six acres on the side of South Mountain overlooking the Lehigh River and the city of Bethlehem.  Potter's plan consisted of a large multi-purpose college building and decending the mountainside en echelon were to be the houses of the president and professors.  Potter envisioned a arrangement similar to Jefferson’s University of Virginia.  Ground was broke on July 1, 1866 and Packer Hall was complete within three years.

Packer Hall illustrates the method of High Victorian Gothic planning.  In England Gothic had always been associated with academia (Landau, 79).  It had first affected American college buildings in the 1830's in the form of the Gothic Revival.  By 1865 High Victorian Gothic was accepted on many college campuses, like Yale, Harvard, and Princteon.

Edward T. Potter's original plans called for the use of polychromatic brick, but Asa Packer overruled the architect and had sandstone brought in from nearby quarries.  This local sandstone was known as the Potsdam Formation at the time Packer hall was built, but today it is recognized as the Hardyston Quartzite, which was quarried for many buildings in the Lehigh Valley. 

The stone came by way of rail from the local Lehigh Valley Railroad.  A separate track was built up what is now Broadhead Avenue to bring the sandstone to the building site.  The rock was shipped "in the rough" and was finished and shaped by stonemasons on site.

Next: Renovations

Here is a photo positioned from the presidents house with Packer Hall, with new tower, and the "old" Linderman Library in the backdrop. Circa, 1890 (Special Collections, Linderman Library Lehigh University).

The doors and windows are trimmed with brownstone and
Limestone also from local quarries.

Early photo of Packer Hall and original tower, circa 1869, a new tower was built in 1882 after the original tower was damage by lightning (Special Collections, Linderman Library Lehigh University)

Edward T. Potter wanted to portray the University as a place of science. Therefore, he decorated the columns of the entrances with historical images such as fossilized ferns, biological fossils like the trilobite and nautilus (shown above).  Potter also decorated the entrances with foliage of the local plant fauna

Picture of Packer Hall with new tower.  Circa 1885 (Special Collections, Linderman Library Lehigh University)