Ezra Cornell differed from the university's first president, Andrew Dickson White, on many issues, including matters aesthetic. "The word 'beauty' was obscure to Quaker Cornell, as to many of his contemporaries," historian Morris Bishop wrote in his history of the university. Buildings including Cascadilla, Morrill, McGraw and White halls "embody the character of Ezra Cornell, grim, gray, sturdy, and economical." The president's house, now known as the A.D. White House, along with Sage Chapel and Sage College (home to the Johnson School), were, according to Bishop, "romantic upstate gothic, quaintly pinnacled and bedizened, [they] portray the taste and soul of Andrew D. White." The president's house, designed by Cornell alumnus William H. Miller and built in 1871, also served as the university's art museum from 1953 to 1973 and today houses the Society for the Humanities.

-- Adapted by George Lowery from Morris Bishop's "A History of Cornell."