Maxcy Hall was originally built in 1909 as the New Haven County Temporary Home for Dependent and Neglected Children, an orphange built to accomodate up to 300 children, providing them with a good home, classrooms, recreational facilities, a chapel and an infirmary. The children were so well taken care of that an elderly man who visited the orphange shortly after it opened declared that these ‘poor’ children were “richer than thousands in the city”.
The orphange closed in 1955, remaining vacant until being purchased by the University of New Haven in 1960, the building being named after Ellis C. Maxcy, the university’s first president.