The Department of Statistics and Data Science is located in the former home of Professor James Dwight Dana (BA, 1833).
This 2½ story Italianate Villa was designed by Henry Austin in 1849 (north wing added and house renovated in 1905). The cube shaped house has a low sloping hip roof with a cupola and extended eaves, and is decorated with ornate wood cornices and small porch. The original sand color of the stucco is meant to simulate stone, and pencilling joints in the stucco suggest ashlar stonework. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark and carries the Landmark Plaque of the New Haven Preservation Trust.
In 1935 wings were added to the building.
The house was purchased in 1962 from the estates of Mary Dana Brown and William B. Dana and occupied by the Labor and Management Library and the Department of Industrial Administration 1964. The Department of Statistics now uses it.
The building underwent extensive exterior restoration work in 1996 [pictures].
The house contains offices for Statistics students and faculty, a classroom, a common room where faculty and students gather for informal discussions, a local network of Linux and Windows workstations, and a small kitchen. All members of the Department have 24-hour access to the building, the library, and the computing facilities.