Our Facilities

Department Buildings

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Crow Hall

The building, built in 1934, was designed by two Washington University architects, George W. Spearl and James P. Jamieson, to house the Department of Physics. Because of the nature of the experiments conducted, the building was constructed in such a manner that it is not subject to the Earth's natural vibrations, and contains a vertical shaft that extends the full height of the building for experiments that involve the study of falling objects. Construction for the building was made possible by $700,000 in gifts.

Compton Laboratory

When Arthur Holly Compton died in 1962, the University erected a physics laboratory as a memorial to him. The 65,000 square foot, five level structure contains laboratories, offices, library space, and machine shop. The building's south face seamlessly adjoins Crow Hall and in tandem, the entire facility constitutes the Washington University Department of Physics.

The Arthur Holly Compton Laboratory of Physics was completed in 1965, and was dedicated in 1966 in recognition of Dr. Compton's distinguished achievements as an educator, physicist, department chairman and chancellor.

Power Plant

The Power Plant contains offices that are used by members of the physics department.

Department of Physics

Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Physics Library

The Physics Library is located on the third floor of Compton Hall. On the main level of the Physics Library, you will find reference books, dissertations, and study space. There are additional tables and study carrels upstairs.

Physics Research Guide

Library Collection

Through many generous donations, the Physics Library once again has some books. Over 1300 books have been processed and are in the Physics Library office, available for use. The vast majority are physics and astronomy, but there are other items included as well.

Browse the Collection

Observatories

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The Crow Observatory

The Crow Observatory is one of St. Louis' most convenient places to see stars, planets, and nebulas through our 19th century telescope. Visits are free and open to the public. Drop by anytime during operation hours, as long as the sky is clear.

The Crow Observatory is open on clear evenings during the fall and spring semesters, Monday through Friday from 7-10pm during standard time and 8-10pm during daylight savings time.

The observatory is atop Crow Hall on the northeast side of WashU Danforth Campus. We advise parking in the East End garage, and proceeding up the hill on the north side of Brookings to reach Crow. You can enter the building through the south door, then go up the stairs and follow the signs.

For questions regarding large group availability, please email crowobservatory@wustl.edu and a member of our team will get back to you shortly.

Learn more about the Crow Observatory and its history.

Tyson Observatory

Tyson Research Center is a 2,000-acre environmental field station owned and operated by Washington University in St. Louis. Tyson provides opportunities for environmental research and education for students and faculty from Washington University and beyond. Infrastructure and programs facilitate multi-scale research and teaching opportunities and collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and levels of academic training. In the middle of the heavily wooded property, we located a clearing suitable to place the observatory. The sky is visible to within 30 degrees of the horizon in all directions, and the site is quite dark with no direct light and only relatively faint light from St. Louis in the distance.

The telescope consists of a 14 inch Celestron C-14 on a Takashashi NJP mount on a stainless steel pier to be permanently installed in a Prodome PD10 fiberglass dome. The focal plane instrumentation consists of an Optek MAXFILTER 2" filter changer (to house an imaging polarimeter) an Optek TCF-S temperature compensating focuser, a FLI CFW-2 filter wheel with RGB and other filters, followed by an FLI CM7-1E CCD camera. The camera uses a Kodak blue-plus CCD and includes a high-speed USB-2 interface. An SBIG STV camera and e-finder lens is used as an autoguider.

Tyson Research Center is located in St. Louis County, approximately 20 miles southwest of St. Louis, at the Beaumont-Antire exit (Exit #269) off I-44.

Machine Shops

The machine shop is a technical support facility whose primary function is to provide technical assistance to the students, faculty, researchers, and administration.

The student shop is located in room 103 of Crow Hall and its use is limited to Physics Department personnel who have completed the required student shop course.

learn more about our machine shops