EARLY COLLEGIATE STRUCTURES

Among contemporary colonial structures, Nassau Hall was closest in appearance to the so-called Wren building,
begun in 1695 at the College of William and Mary and rebuilt according to Governor Spotswood's designs shortly after it was gutted by fire. The Wren Building featured a central pavilion and pediment, like Nassau Hall, but the Wren building, with its brick construction, had a more finished appearance, and the later Nassau Hall was less sophisticated and gracious in its proportions.

Other notable collegiate structures of the day included a cluster of buildings at Harvard,

and the college at New Haven.
At the time, Nassau Hall was the only college structure built of stone, as opposed to brick.

Smith's design for Nassau Hall bred imitators. Smith himself designed Brown's University Hall,
a four-story structure that improved on Nassau Hall by having wider, more elegant windows. Dartmouth Hall,
the original structure in Hanover, in many ways resembles a wooden version of Nassau Hall.