Fairleigh Dickinson University is the largest private university in New Jersey with two campuses in the Garden State, one center in Canada, and another in England.
The Campus at Florham's address is on Madison Avenue in the Madison, New Jersey. Right down Madison Avenue is another fine New Jersey institution of higher learning, Drew University.
This area of the road, stretching from Madison to Morristown, was known as Millionaire’s Row.
Many wealthy families lived here, including those with the names of Dodge, Morgan, Gibbons, Twombly, and Vanderbilt.
They built their estate, Florham, which comes from combining their two first names. The name of their estate was eventually combined with name of another estate to form Florham Park, New Jersey (I wrote about the Little Red Schoolhouse in Florham Park two weeks ago).
This is important, because the Florham mansion eventually became the heart of the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson. The sprawling campus is actually located both in Madison and Florham Park.
The 100-room estate was designed by the preeminent architect Stanford White, and the grounds designed by Frederick Olmsted, who designed Central Park (and Branch Brook Park in Newark). Olmsted is considered the founder of American landscape architecture.
On your way to the main building you will see Reuter’s Rock.
During the school year students will paint important messages on the Rock about current campus events.
This large building, now known as “The Mansion,” is now
the main campus building at FDU.
Administrative offices and classes and
lectures are offered here.
As the university website says:
The landscape was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted, who is renowned as the designer of New York City's Central Park. The surviving principal buildings, designed in Georgian style by the firm McKim, Mead, & White in the 1890s, have been adapted for educational uses. The 100-room mansion Hennessy Hall, centerpiece of the campus, is a work of Stanford White; it is a replica of a wing in King Henry VIII's Hampton Court. Most of its interior decorations (such as staircases and fireplaces) are in Italian marble, worked by craftsmen brought from the same country. In addition to classrooms and offices, the Hennessy Hall holds Hartman Lounge -- the chestnut-paneled former billiard room -- and the Lenfell Hall drawing room.
The inside rooms are ornate and very beautiful. I took the interior photos with my iPhone 5.
To read more about the history of Fairleigh Dickinson university and the educational programs offered, visit their website!
The university currently offers more than 100 degree programs!
You can read more about the Florham estate, including links to some wonderful photographs and articles about Florence Vanderbilt and her family, here.
Georgian Court University is a private Catholic University located in Lakewood, New Jersey. There are many lovely college campuses in the United States, but I think that Georgian Court's campus is one of the best kept secrets in the country!