Since time immemorial, the land we now consider to be Seattle has been inhabited by the Duwamish people. White settlers first arrived in the Puget Sound in November of 1851, when a group of two dozen men, women, and children headed by Arthur Denny landed at Alki Point.  Four years after the Denny Party’s arrival, the Duwamish and several other tribes and bands signed the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, under which they agreed to exchange 54,000 acres of their homeland for the guarantees of a reservation and several other benefits. Settlers took over the land, but the reservation (along with other promises made to the Duwamish) never materialized.

The University of Washington was founded in 1861, less than ten years after the Denny Party first landed. For the first three decades after its inception, the university operated on a ten-acre campus located in Downtown Seattle. However, between 1861 and 1891, Seattle’s population grew from about 250 residents to more than 50,000, surrounding the campus with new development and limiting its options for further expansion. In the early 1890s the Washington State Legislature approved the relocation of the University to its expansive present-day site: 350 acres on the shores of Union Bay, much of which was donated by Arthur Denny.

Constructed in 1894-95, Denny Hall was the first building to be erected on the University of Washington’s present-day campus. Originally called the Administration Building, the structure took on the name of Denny Hall in 1910 in honor of Arthur Denny.

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