COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: MAIN CAMPUS

After more than 250 years on the island of Manhattan, Columbia University has become a central part of the New York City experience. Originally called King’s College—as it was founded by royal charter of King George II of England in 1754—Columbia University is the oldest university in New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus was not the university’s original location. It moved from downtown Manhattan to a campus in midtown until opportunity for growth and expansion presented itself: a defunct mental institution, whose vast grounds had been up for sale since 1888. Two million dollars later, Columbia was the proud owner of two-thirds of the Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum’s property and its Upper West Side chronicle began.

The Morningside Heights campus now occupies more than six city blocks and blends an eclectic mix of architectural styles, from classical Greek and Roman and Italian renaissance, to more modern style buildings.