Scholars searching for insights into President Wilson's personality continue to study the titanic struggle between Wilson and Andrew Fleming West over the site of Princeton's Graduate College almost a century after it occurred.

On the face of it, the dispute was simple: should the dormitory and dining complex be built in the heart of the main campus, or on a far-off site adjacent to the golf course. Wilson, hoping to encourage interaction between graduate and undergraduate students, supported the former. Dean West, equally implacable in promoting his idealized vision of an academic citadel in fabulous Gothic isolation, supported the later.

Wilson eventually lost, outmaneuvered by West and Moses Taylor Pyne, a powerful member of the Board of Trustees. The full story has been told many times, and in the greatest detail by Willard Thorp, Minor Myers Jr., and Jeremiah Finch in The Princeton Graduate School: A History. As they make clear, the core conflict was one of educational philosophy and money; that the proposed complex would be in the Collegiate Gothic style was never in question.

Ralph Adams Cram, Supervising Architect of the University, also played a pivotal role in the struggle over the complex he was to design. At first he favored Wilson's proposed site, in the area between 1879 Hall and Prospect House. In 1908 he wrote "It seems to me imperative...that the Graduate College should be in a place where it is insistently before the eyes of the undergraduates." Cram produced a number of designs for a complex attached to 1879 Hall, incorporating its own chapel, dining hall, and residential quadrangles, and set off from the main campus by an encircling wall. Over time, however, Cram became increasingly enamored with the site by the golf course. Won over by the opportunity to build on a grand scale in such a tremendous location, unfettered by the need to work around surrounding buildings, he weighed in on West's side late in the game.

Ground was broken in October 1910, just days before Wilson's resignation as president of Princeton in order to run for Governor of New Jersey. Cram and West had previously agreed on the basic structure of the new complex: a Collegiate Gothic quadrangle, with a memorial tower and great hall. But the long equivocation over the site meant that Cram in the end had to rush the plans, and throughout the building process the architect was only just ahead of the construction crews.

The most striking exterior element in Cram's design was the Cleveland Memorial Tower, soaring 173 feet at the southeastern corner of the complex. Paid for by public subscription, it was named after President Grover Cleveland, a resident of Princeton and supporter of Dean West. A carillon was installed in the tower in 1922.

To the west and north of the tower, meanwhile, lay the main bulk of the original Graduate School: a classic Collegiate Gothic quadrangle with two-tier courtyard, known as Thomson College. A shorter tower over the southern archway, called Pyne Tower, contained the rooms of the master of the Graduate College, Howard C. Butler, Class of 1892.

But the gem in the complex was the dining hall and common rooms in the western wing, known as Procter Hall. Many critics consider Cram's Graduate College to be his finest work in the Collegiate Gothic style, and Procter Hall is the reason why. Modeled on the great dining halls of Oxford and Cambridge, Procter Hall was known for its magnificent stained glass, carved timber ceiling, and pipe organ. A raised dias at one end held the head table.

Wyman House, the residence of the Dean of the Graduate College, was also part of the original complex. This half-timbered Tudor-style house is located to the southwest of Procter Hall. Extensive gardens were planted behind Wyman House and reflected West's tastes. This garden included ivy grown from cuttings from Martin Luther's house in Wittenburg, University College at Oxford, and Christ College at Cambridge.

As enrollment increased, expansion became necessary. In 1926, a second Collegiate Gothic quadrangle was added to the north of Thomson College. Also by Cram, this quad was known as North Court. Finally, a third section was built in 1963 by the firm of Ballard, Todd and Snibbe. Although in a modernist style, these quads, known as the Procter and Compton Quadrangles, were constructed in the same stone as the original Graduate College.