Betts House (Yale University)

Betts House
Betts House from Prospect Street
Former names	John M. Davies House Angell Hall
General information
Architectural style	French Second Empire
Address	393 Prospect Street
Town or city	New Haven, Connecticut
Completed	1868
Renovated	2002
Renovation cost	US$14,000,000
Client	John M. Davies
Owner	Yale University
Technical details
Floor count	3
Floor area	21,899 sq ft (2,034.5 m2)
Grounds	7 acres (2.8 ha)
Design and construction
Architect	Henry Austin (with David R. Brown)
Renovating team
Renovating firm	Helpern Architects
Other information
Number of rooms	23

Betts House, also known as the John M. Davies House or Davies Mansion, is a mansion owned by Yale University in the Prospect Hill Historic District of New Haven, Connecticut. Completed in 1868 and designed by Henry Austin, it was sold to Yale in 1972 and is now home to the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the Yale World Fellows program.

When built, the 21,000-square-foot (2,000 m²) square foot mansion was the largest single-family home in New Haven. It 1947, it was converted into the home of the new Culinary Institute of America, but fell into disuse for four decades after being acquired by Yale. Considering it the best example of Second French Empire Revival architecture in the city, preservationists and students stopped the university from demolishing it in the 1990s. In 2002, the building was extensively renovated and put back into use.

The earliest residences in the Prospect Hill neighborhood were built in the 1860s, when Oliver Winchester, Othneil Marsh, and John M. Davies all built mansions on the same block north of Edwards Street. Winchester, founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company located just down the hill, was the first to complete his mansion, an Italian villa designed by Henry Austin, which was later replaced by the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle. In 1867, Davies acquired seven acres to its south and commissioned Austin to design a second mansion at the highest point on the hill. An 1885 home was then completed to the mansion's south, later occupied by William Howard Taft after his term as President of the United States. When Davies died in 1874, the property passed to his wife, Alice, then to Thomas Wallace, Jr. in 1911, who redecorated much of the interior.