Was purchased by the Colleges in 1986 from Finger Lakes Cerebral Palsy’s Happiness House

The house is built in the Tudor style and has similarities to The Grant House (located at 816 South Main Street). The sills and lintels are of white stone and the front entrance is rounded in the Jacobean style with white stone surround.

Was originally owned by William Brennan, the President, Treasurer, and General Manager of the Geneva Foundry. His daughter, Marguerite, was a stenographer for the Geneva Foundry.

Idea for Hobart Honors & Leadership House conceived by former Hobart Dean Joseph Healy and President Emeritus Carroll Brewster.

Mary Brewster, Carroll Brewster’s wife, selected the furnishings from the Stickley Company (some of the furniture still exists today in the Bampton living room).

Bampton’s stipulation of the gift was that the house was to never be a coed residence.

Named in honor of James W. Bampton, Hobart College Class of 1932 and Honorary Degree Recipient (LLD) in 1968. Bampton was a long-time trustee and was named an honorary trustee in 1957. He passed away in 1999.

Honorary trustee, honorary degree recipient, and William Smith College alumna Barbara Lynch Springstead (William Smith Class of 1957) lived in this house. She was the granddaughter of William Brennan Sr., the original owner of the house. She graduated cum laude with a major in English and was a member of Hai Timiai. Her husband, Ralph Springstead (Hobart Class of 1947) majored in history and was a Druid, President of his fraternity (Sigma Phi Society), and is the retired Chairman of the Board & CEO of Savings Bank of the Finger Lakes (currently known as First Niagara Bank). Both reside in Geneva.

Joan Lynch (William Smith Class of 1961) also grew up in this house with her sister, Barbara. She is currently the retired Assistant Director of Social Services at Geneva General Hospital and was active in Little Theater at William Smith College.