Architect Donn Barber's Berzelius Society, 1908 or 1910.Berzelius, perspective from Temple StreetClassically symmetrical front approach.Detail of entryway ornamentation. Berzelius Society symbol depicted within shield.
Founded in 1848, 'BZ', as the society is called often, is the third oldest society at Yale and the oldest of those of the now-defunct Sheffield Scientific School, the institution which from 1854 to 1956 was the sciences and engineering college of Yale University. Berzelius became a senior society in the tradition of Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Wolf's Head in 1933 when the Sheffield Scientific School was integrated into Yale University. Book and Snake and St. Elmo, also societies from Sheffield, followed suit. Skull and Bones, founded in 1832, Scroll and Key, founded in 1841, and Wolf's Head, founded in 1883, catered to students in the Academic Department, or liberal arts college.[1][2]
The alumni trust organization, the 1848 Association,[3] owns the society's building. Outsiders refer to the building as a 'tomb', the customary appellation for a secret society structure at Yale; however, many BZ members refer to their building as "The Hall." This is likely a transferred linguistic remnant of the tradition of the 'Sheff' secret societies, which had 'halls' for residential use and 'tombs' as separate meeting places, in contrast to the Yale College senior secret societies, which maintained only "tombs."
Donn Barber designed the current society building, completed in 1908 or 1910, and likened to a "blank cube" with classical ornamentation.[4]
Henry Bacon and James Brite designed a brick-clad Neo-Renaissance-style dormitory, completed in 1898. (Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect best known for having designed the Greek Doric Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, and built between 1915 and 1922, his final project.) Yale purchased the dormitory in 1933 for student housing, later using it for faculty offices before demolishing it in 1969 to facilitate construction of the Yale Health Services Center, 17 Hillhouse Avenue.
Architectural historian Patrick L. Pinnell notes in Yale University that Berzelius sold to the Scroll and Key Society the site on which the latter erected its own tomb.[5]
Architectural historian Scott Meacham cites both Berzelius buildings in his study of Yale and Dartmouth society and fraternity architecture.[6]
The original building was built to resemble a Greek temple.[7] The surviving ca. 1908-10 building's location, set off from the more active center of Yale's campus, lends privacy to Berzelius' members, and its unadorned largely blank exterior conveys to outsiders the deceptive sense that nothing much happens inside. In addition to the meeting room, dining area, and numerous study rooms, there are below-ground activity rooms with a pool table and ping pong table for recreation. BZ recently[when?] underwent a major restoration.[4]
The society takes its intellectual mission seriously, invoking Socrates' exhortation "The unexamined life is not worth living” as well as stating to its prospective members that: "Berzelius provides opportunities for achieving insights through an open, honest exchange of experiences, passions, and opinions. This process prepares its members — whose diversity is highly valued — for an active, intellectually vigorous, and moral life, giving them a place and time for contemplation and reflection so that they might rise boldly to the challenges of their lives, devoted to good character, tolerant of others, and willing to serve their communities, while forging links of mind to mind in a chain unbroken."
Berzelius's members have included U.S. senators and governors, influential journalists and activists, accomplished athletes and artists, and successful businesspeople. These include:
Arnold Hague, a United States geologist who did many geological surveys in the U.S., of which the best known was that for Yellowstone National Park.
William Proxmire, United States Senator (D) from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. An early critic of the Vietnam War, and an outspoken campaigner against wasteful government spending.[2]
William W. Scranton, Republican Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967; United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1976 to 1977.[2]
Levi Jackson, first African American to captain an Ivy League football team, first African American member of a Yale secret society. Later, a high-ranking executive at Ford Motor Company.[9]
