Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery - Stanford, California - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The Romanesque THOMAS WELTON STANFORD ART GALLERY, built in 1917, gift of a brother of Senator Stanford, has a small permanent collection of the work of nineteenth-century American artists. Like the buildings adjoining on the south, it is a unit in a projected new quadrangle, one of two planned to flank the present Outer Quandrangle, on the east and west.

Constructed in 1917 with Thomas W. Stanford’s donation of $80,000, the Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery was the first building to anchor a planned library quadrangle just east of the University’s center. The Stanford Art Gallery was built to house a collection of the donor’s paintings and to create a strong cultural presence close to the main quadrangle. The Gallery distinguishes itself in style from both the Green Library and the original Richardsonian quadrangle: it is more overtly Medieval than Spanish Colonial Revival in design, and features elaborate detailing in the moldings and columns.