![[photo of Ellis Hall]](/encyclopedia/sites/qencwww/files/uploaded_images/e/ellishall/b-ellis.jpg "Ellis Hall")
Completed in 1958, this building has long been the home of the Department of Civil Engineering and of the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Observatory, which is located on the roof.
It is named after Douglas Stewart Ellis (1885-1955), a ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ graduate who taught Civil Engineering between 1910 and 1955 and was Dean of Applied Science from 1943 to 1955.
Ellis Hall was constructed to help alleviate the extreme pressure on the Engineering faculty which was the result of a huge increase in the demand for scientific courses at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ after the war.
When Ellis Hall was under construction, some people felt that all the engineering buildings should be clustered together in the northeast end of campus. However, construction continued and Ellis Hall was built on University Avenue opposite Ontario Hall.