Built in 1895, it is the second oldest building on campus and was constructed using the remaining Tenino sandstone blocks from Denny Hall, the oldest and first building on campus.

The refracting telescope, enclosed within the dome, has a six-inch Brashear objective lens of a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount.

Today, the observatory is primarily used for public outreach and is run jointly by the UW Department on Astronomy and the Seattle Astronomical Society.

[2] Information on the original design and building of the observatory by Prof. Joseph Marion Taylor may be found on the University Washington Astronomy Department website and other sources.

This article about a specific observatory, telescope or astronomical instrument in the United States is a stub.