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Godchaux Hall
Godchaux Hall Godchaux Hall
General information
Location	Nashville, Tennessee
Governing body	Private
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Coolidge & Shattuck

Godchaux Hall is a building located on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee located at 461 21st Avenue South. It is part of the Medical Center campus and is the main administration building for the the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

It was built in 1925 as the “Nurses Home” because all Vanderbilt nurses were required to live there. The Collegiate Gothic building opened the same year as the adjacent Vanderbilt University Hospital and School of Medicine.

Designed by Boston architectural firm, Coolidge & Shattuck, the building originally housed lecture rooms, a demonstration room, a library, large drawing rooms for social affairs, and single sleeping rooms for students. The building is 41,366 sq.ft., 7 levels, and the cost of construction was $695,000.

This building was named the "School of Nursing Building” until 1934.

In June 1934, the Committee on Nursing Service decided to select a name for the building and sent a recommendation to the Vanderbilt Board of Trust to name the building for Mary Kirkland, wife of then Chancellor Kirkland. The School of Nursing building was officially called the "Mary Kirkland Hall" on June 11, 1934.

In 1958, the building was re-named "Mary Henderson Hall" to avoid confusion with Kirkland Hall, the University’s administration building.

In 1971, the building name changed to “Mary Ragland Godchaux Hall” in honor of Mary Ragland Godchaux, whose family has been prominent in Vanderbilt and School of Nursing affairs for several generations.

Over the years, the entrance to Godchaux Hall has become an easily recognized image of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. This entrance has been the entry point into nursing education for thousands of men and women since 1925, and it has become a metaphor for the discipline of nursing itself.

Nursing Annex

Godchaux Nursing Annex, at the same address, is a more recent addition to the school that was constructed in 1977 to provide 14,154 sq. ft. of additional space for classrooms. It adjoins Godchaux Hall and is accessible by an atrium that connects Godcahuax Hall to Frist Hall.