Branford College

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Branford College
Image:Br.128.gif

Motto	? -
Named For	Branford, Connecticut
Established	1933
Colors	Blue, green, yellow
College Master	Steven Smith
College Dean	Thomas McDow
Undergraduates	?
Called	Branfordians
Location	74 High Street
Harvard Sister House(s)	Quincy House
Homepage	http://www.yale.edu/branford

Branford College is one of the 12 residential colleges at Yale University. It was founded in 1933 by partitioning the Memorial Quadrangle (built in 1917-21) into two parts: Saybrook and Branford. According to Robert Frost, it is "the oldest and most beautiful" of the Yale residential colleges, though it shares a building and was founded simultaneously with Saybrook. The significance of this quote notwithstanding, Jonathan Edwards College is actually the oldest of Yale's colleges, founded in 1932, one year before Branford.

Branford College was named for the nearby city of Branford, Connecticut, where Yale was briefly located. The base of Harkness Tower, one of the university's most prominent structures and for a time the tallest free-standing stone structure in the world, forms one corner of Branford's main courtyard. The tower contains a 54-bell carillon. The student rooms and common areas are decorated with stained glass by G. Owen Bonawit. Branford's architect, James Gamble Rogers, required that at least one pane on every window be broken and then soldered back together, resulting in a Y-shape in many of the windows.

The college was renovated in 2000.

On the television show Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore (played by Alexis Bledel) is a member of Branford College. Richard Gilmore (played by Edward Herrmann) is a fictional Branford College alumnus.