Robert­son Hall, the build­ing that cur­rently houses the Woodrow Wil­son School of Pub­lic and Inter­na­tional Affairs (WWSPIA) has been fea­tured in two news­reels: the “Prince­ton news­reel” of 1961, announc­ing the, at the time anony­mous, $35 mil­lion gift of Charles S. Robert­son ’26 and his wife, Marie; and the 1966 news­reel about Pres­i­dent Lyn­don Johnson’s visit to ded­i­cate the build­ing. This post fea­tures the build­ing that orig­i­nally housed the Woodrow Wil­son School: Cor­win Hall, erected in 1951 and orig­i­nally known as “Wil­son Hall,” which had to be moved 100 feet to make way for the new WWSPIA facility.

The spec­tac­u­lar move of the build­ing to its present site between Wal­lace and Robert­son Hall was recorded via time lapse film­ing on an 8mm cam­era by Lawrence l. Rauch *49, who donated the footage to the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives. The engi­neer­ing feat was accom­plished by the New York firm of Spencer, White, and Pren­tiss, using hydraulic jacks to push the build­ing along twelve steel tracks. The actual mov­ing took only twelve hours but two months were needed to pre­pare for it and another three months to secure the build­ing to its new foundation.

When Robert­son Hall was com­pleted in 1965, Wil­son Hall was re-assigned to one of WWSPIA’s chief allies, the Depart­ment of Pol­i­tics, and to the Cen­ter of Inter­na­tional Stud­ies. Its name was changed to Cor­win Hall, in honor of Edward S. Cor­win, the first chair­man of the Depart­ment of Pol­i­tics and the long-time holder of the McCormick Pro­fes­sor­ship of Jurispru­dence, the pro­fes­sor­ship orig­i­nally held by Woodrow Wilson.

This 8mm film, a gift from Lawrence L. Rauch *49, is part of the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives’ His­tor­i­cal Audio­vi­sual Col­lec­tion (item no. 1980). Adapted from the post by John DeLooper in Mudd Man­u­script Library’s Blog with excerpts from Alexan­der Leitch A Prince­ton Com­pan­ion (Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Press, 1978).