Founder's Hall (Rockefeller University) Founder's Hall (Rockefeller University) Founder's Hall was the first building built on the campus of The Rockefeller University (formerly The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research ) at 66th Street and York Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City. Built between 1903 and 1906, it represents an instance of one of John D. Rockefeller's largest scale efforts at philanthropy, and housed the nation's first major biomedical research laboratory. Construction costs for Founders, which included an Animal housing facility and a powerhouse were $276,000. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. The building is now mainly used for school offices. Founder's
Rockefeller University on York Avenue. Richard P. Lifton—previously the executive director of the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics at Yale University—became the university's eleventh president on September 1, 2016. The Rockefeller University Press publishes the "Journal of Experimental Medicine", the "Journal of Cell Biology", and "The Journal of General Physiology". The Rockefeller University was founded in June 1901 as The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research—often called simply The Rockefeller Institute—by John D. Rockefeller, who had founded the University of Chicago in 1889, upon advice by his adviser Frederick T. Gates and action taken in March 1901 by his son, John D.