Bowles Hall

Bowles Hall, the first residence hall on campus, was dedicated in 1929. Known for its imposing exterior (and interior!) and its colorful history, the building earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Trenching studies completed in 1998 revealed that the southeastern corner of the castle-like all-men's dormitory barely clips a trace of the Hayward Fault. However, that trace of the fault showed no activity in the Holocene (~10,000 years ago to the present). Bowles was originally rated "fair" for life safety, possibly due to the risks posed by falling ceiling tiles. The tiles were secured, and the building was upgraded to "good" in a subsequent campus review that took place in 1997.