Hamlin House was built in 1905 for Chicago opera singer George Hamlin by James Gamble Rogers. Rogers attended Yale University, where he contributed to The Yale Record and was a member of the senior society Scroll and Key, whose membership included several other notable architects. He is responsible for many of the gothic revival structures at Yale University built in the 1910s through the mid-1930s, as well as the university's master plan in 1924.[2] He designed for other universities as well, such as the Butler Library at Columbia University, many of the original buildings at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (now the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center), and several buildings at Northwestern University, notably Deering Library. Rogers was philanthropist Edward Harkness's favorite architect, and Harkness would often condition a gift for a new academic or medical building upon the institution's agreement to hire Rogers for the project. It is thus no coincidence that Rogers' work is abundant at Yale, Columbia and the other institutions Harkness supported lavishly.