Ban Righ Hall

Ban Righ Hall is a 2 to 4 storey limestone clad steel building with a side gable slate roof. It was built in 1923 to designs of Shepard & Calvin, architects. The original building has had several additions and the overall composition is comprised of several different building masses, each with Collegiate Gothic influences. The building is L-shaped, reflecting its location at the intersection of University Avenue and Queen’s Crescent.
The section of the building at the corner of the intersection contains the main entranceway and rise four storeys to a den tilled string course surmounted by a high parapet. The four bay University Avenue facade has a slightly projecting pavilion in bay 1 which rises above the parapet. On the Queen’s Crescent face of this section is a four storey projecting pavilion with a flat roof which contains a secondary entrance. The main entrance on the east facade is recessed within an ashlar enclosure and has two doors with a fanlight above. The north side of the corner section has three square-headed windows per floor with a double window in the first storey of bay 3.
The west wing beyond this corner section has a series of steeply pitched gabled sections rising through the roof line and a flat-roofed section which ends in a parapetted gable section. The overall height is three storeys, including dormers in the gable roof. The facade has two storey buttresses separating each bay while the third storey windows are centred on the buttress in the gable ends and in gabled roof dormers. The three-storey gabled pavilion at the end of the west wing has buttressed corners and double square-transomed windows centred between the first and second and second and third storeys. A further western addition contains a dining hall and is two storeys high with a flat, parapetted roof. The south wing along University Avenue is separated from the comer section by a three storey buttress and consists of three storeys and a gabled roof with hip-roofed dormers. One storey buttresses separate the five bay facade. Bay 1 has no windows but the remaining bays have a Gothicarched tliple window on the first storey with single square-headed windows in each storey above, and a single window in the dormers.
The building defines an important street corner and establishes the building setback for each street. Later additions include major ones by Drever & Smith (1951) and Allward & Gouinlock (1968). Historical associations include Ban Righ being the first womens’ residence and the major contribution to its construction by Queen’s women.
Work undertaken at Ban Righ Hall concluded in 2025 and included extensive masonry repairs, restorations, and rebuilding on the exterior of Ban Righ including the rebuilding of the top portion of the parapet walls and chimney. For this restoration work the Ban Righ Hall received an award by the Frontenac Heritage Foundation in 2025 for heritage conservation. More information is provided in our awards section.