Luce Hall was the first, purpose-built building for the U.S. Naval War College, founded at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1884.
In a Flemish style inspired by the town hall and guild halls on the Grote Markt in Antwerp, Belgium, local Newport architect George Champlin Mason & Son designed the building for the Navy with gables facing Narragansett Bay. It was completed on 22 May 1892 at the cost of $82,875, with the remainder of the $100,000 Congressional appropriation being spent on heating and equipment. The building was originally designed to have four sets of officers' quarters, one in each corner of the building, with the College classrooms, library, and administration located in the center section. This usage remained until 1914, when the entire building was opened for official uses.
The building was the main administrative building for the Naval War College from 1892, when Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was President of the Naval War College for his second time, until 1974 during the presidency of Vice Admiral Stansfield Turner, when the president's office was moved to newly constructed Conolly Hall.
In 1972 the building was added to the National Historic Register as building #72001439.
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—Donald Hall (b. 1928)