Smith Observatory
620 Castle Street, Geneva, New York | Officially Marked Monument
Millionaire philanthropist and partly closeted freethinker William Smith erected this small but well-equipped observatory—along with a comfortable brick house for its director—next door to his own red-brick mansion in Geneva, New York, in 1888. Smith recruited astronomer William Robert Brooks (1844-1921), who used the observatory’s 10-inch Warner and Swasey refractor telescope and 4-inch transit telescope to discover a great number of comets, bringing scientific fame to Geneva just as Smith had hoped.
Owned by Hobart and William Smith Colleges until 1974, the structure was privately acquired in 1974 and has since been restored.
Smith Observatory
Smith Observatory (white) is shown at center. At left is the red-brick residence of observatory director William Brooks. During Brooks's tenure, the facility was known as the Red House Observatory, named for the residence.
Smith Observatory
The Observatory dome is seen clearly behind the garage, a late addition erected adjacent to the former director's residence.
Smith Observatory
This historical marker was placed by the New York State Education Department in 1932.
