Risley Residential College

About Risley Residential College

Prudence Risley Residential College for the Creative and Performing Arts (commonly Risley, Risley Hall, or Prudence Risley) is Cornell's first program house, opened to students in 1913 as a women's dormitory. Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage donated $300,000 in 1911 for construction; the building is named after her husband Russell Sage's mother, Prudence Risley. Designed by Cornell architect William Henry Miller in Tudor gothic style and modeled on Hampton Court Palace in England, the building looks like a large red-brick castle. Per the benefactors' request, no two rooms are identical — sizes range from a 93 sq ft single (originally a maid's quarters) to a 273 sq ft double (the largest double-occupancy room on campus). Architectural features include balconies, fireplaces, dumbwaiter shafts, secret stairwells, bay windows, embrasures, and turrets. In fall 1970 the building was repurposed as Cornell's first program house, dedicated to creative and performing arts. The Risley Great Hall — built at Andrew Dickson White's request as a scaled-down replica of Christ Church, Oxford's dining hall — features a stained-glass window depicting Elizabeth Fry, Abigail Adams, and Mary Somerville. It is the university's only gluten-free dining hall. Facilities include a theater (the 81-seat Risley Theatre, an entirely student-run black box in a converted ballroom), music practice rooms, art workshops, a recording studio, darkroom, small library, and the Tammany coffeehouse. Risleyites govern the building through an elected Kommittee. Annual traditions include MasqueRave, the Denton Drama Troupe's Rocky Horror Picture Show (since 1991), Wizard's Feast (since 2005), and the annual reading of Handel's Messiah. A longstanding legend says Prudence Risley ("Auntie Prue") haunts the building.