University of Hartford history

Vincent Brown Coffin, a well-known and influential insurance executive, was named the first chancellor of the University in 1958.

When Martin Luther King Jr. came to Hartford in 1959 as a speaker in a new University lecture series, the campus did not have an auditorium yet.

By the early 1960's, the University was already considering expanding its reach beyond Hartford.

The first residence halls opened on the residential side of campus in 1967, followed by a student union and athletics facilities.

A library and new cafeteria, University Commons, opened in 1971.

The 1980's were a time of expansion for the University—as it was for the rest of the country.

The women who founded the Center in 1985 looked at the rapidly shifting economic forces and listened to the concerns of Hartford College for Women (HCW) students and women around the state.

Colleges and universities nationwide—and most especially in the Northeast—were met with a variety of obstacles as the new decade of the 1990's began—recession, a sharp drop in the college-age population, and widespread job layoffs affecting the financial resources of many families.

In 1991, the University began an architectural engineering program, which became a popular major.

The University of Hartford Magnet School for children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade opened its doors on the southern end of campus in 2001 during Harrison’s administration.

In 2006, the Career Counseling Center is re-named the Center for Professional Development (CPD). The Entrepreneurial Center and Women’s Business Center continue to be organized under this department.

In 2008, at the site of a historic Hartford car dealership designed 80 years earlier by pioneering industrial designer Albert Kahn, the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center opened.

The high school initially opened temporarily at the former Hartford College of Women campus then moved into its new building on the UHart campus in 2009.

The center has also coordinated various student efforts to raise more than $9,000 for earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010.

More recently (2012), Hillyer Hall, the University’s oldest classroom building, received a facelift and expansion through the addition of the 10,000-square-foot Shaw Center.