Construction of Clark University’s “Main Building,” now Jonas Clark Hall, began in 1888, a year after the University was incorporated by an act of the Massachusetts legislature. Noted Worcester architect Stephen Earle was contracted to design the building, but University founder Jonas Clark put his own stamp on it. In fact, according to William Koelsch’s 1987 history of Clark, “Earle told Amy Tanner in 1908 that he wanted to be put on record in her manuscript history of early Clark ‘as expressly disclaiming any responsibility for the building.’”