B Buildings

Baker Hall
Baker Systems
Barrett House
Bevis Hall
Bill Davis Stadium
Blackburn House
Bolz Hall
Boyd Laboratory
Bradley Hall
Bricker Hall
Brown Hall
Brown Hall Annex
Browning Amphitheater

Baker Hall

The building was officially named on Jan. 8, 1940 in memory of the former University Trustee Newton D. Baker (1871-1937).

A West Virginia native, Baker moved to Cleveland, where he served as mayor from 1912 to 1916. In March 1916 Baker was sworn in as Secretary of War under President Woodrow Wilson. In his obituary, penned by Walter Lippmann, it was said of Baker that, “…his great gift was an almost unusual capacity to select and absorb the data of a problem and to master it intellectually and see it in all its four dimensions.” Lippmann went on to write that during the turbulent time of 1917, the calmest spot in Washington, D.C., was in Baker’s office. Baker reasoned problems out, but refused to dwell on them, he said.

Baker was named to Ohio State’s Board of Trustees in 1932 to serve out the two-year unexpired term of Egbert Mack, who retired because of illness. Baker served for the next five years until his death in 1937.

Originally built as an all-men’s dorm, Baker Hall now includes several additions. The original structure, now called Baker Hall East, opened on Sep. 15, 1940. The first addition – Baker West – opened for Autumn Quarter, 1957. Yet another addition expanded food service and opened in September 1958.

At one point there was a housing shortage for women. So women occupied Baker Hall for several years, until Paterson and Bradley halls opened in January of 1955.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Baker Hall

Baker Systems

The tower was completed in August 1968 on the former site of the university’s veterinary clinic. The building’s name was changed from “Systems Engineering Building” to “The David F. Baker Systems Engineering Building” in July 1970 after Dr. Baker’s death in a plane crash in February 1970.

Dr. Baker, a World War II veteran, had served as chair of the Department of Engineering from 1964-1970, and he was credited with establishing the four-year undergraduate program for industrial engineering.

Today, Baker Systems houses computer labs and classrooms.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Baker Systems

Barrett House

Officially named by the Board of Trustees on April 6, 1962, in memory of Thomas W. Barrett, this residence hall and other North Dorms were built in honor of Ohio State’s war veterans. Construction began in October 1961. Built as a women’s dorm, the building was first occupied by students in Autumn Quarter of 1963. The completed cost at that time was $620,643.95.

Thomas Barrett was born in Cleveland in 1896. As an undergraduate, he was a member of Sigma Pi and the Horticulture Society. He graduated with a degree in agriculture. In 1917 Barrett joined the U.S. Navy as a navigator; on June 28, 1917 while flying with an instructor his plane crashed following a gas tank explosion. He was the first Ohio State alumnus or student to die in World War I.

Barrett House is one of nine dormitories built on North Campus during the 1960s to honor university graduates and former students who were killed during war service.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Barrett House

Bevis Hall

Construction began on Bevis Hall in 1967 and was completed in September 1969.

The building was officially named Nov. 13, 1969, to honor University President Howard L. Bevis, who served from 1940-1956. It originally housed classrooms and offices for University College, but the building’s purpose changed when the university ended the University College program.

Since 1985, Bevis Hall has been home to Transportation and Parking Services (now CampusParc).

Bevis was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, and attended the Cincinnati Technical School and the University of Cincinnati, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in arts in 1908, and a bachelor of law degree in 1910. He was admitted to the Bar, and practiced for six years until he entered government service in the World War I, serving as the head of the legal division of the Army Air Service’s Finance Division. In 1919 and 1920 Bevis attended Harvard, receiving a doctor of the science of law, and afterwards returned to the University of Cincinnati as a professor of law. He served on the Ohio Supreme Court and as Ohio Gov. George White’s director of finance before returning to Harvard, where he taught until he was invited to become Ohio State’s President.

Arriving just before World War II, Bevis served as Ohio State’s seventh president, during a period of tremendous change at the University, including a boom in enrollment after the war. The old Ohio Union, Mershon Auditorium, St. John Arena and the French Field House were all constructed during his tenure. He was later named professor emeritus at Ohio State, and he died on April 24, 1968.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Bevis Hall

Bill Davis Stadium

Ohio State Men’s Baseball has had a number of homes since the team started playing back in the late 1800s, but games are currently held at Bill Davis Stadium, located just west of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

William C. Davis was CEO of Davis Enterprises and a big fan of the team, so his family contributed $1.5 million in his memory towards its construction after previous attempts to raise funds failed.

The stadium opened in March 1997. Ohio State’s first baseball diamond was on the Oval, where Derby and Hayes Halls now stand.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Bill Davis Stadium

Blackburn House

Officially named by the Board of Trustees on April 6, 1962, in memory of John Thomas Blackburn, this residence hall and other North Dorms were built in honor of Ohio State’s war veterans.

The building was completed in December 1963 and first used in January of 1964 as a men’s dormitory.

Blackburn, of Columbus, was one of four Ohio State men killed in action in 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served aboard the U.S.S. Utah. A member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, he enlisted in the Navy in October 1939.

Blackburn House is one of nine dormitories built on North Campus during the 1960s to honor university graduates and former students who were killed during war service.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Blackburn House

Bolz Hall

Formerly known as the Civil & Aeronautical Engineering Building, the building was completed in January 1960. The building was called the Civil and Aeronautical Engineering Building until May 4, 1989, when the Board of Trustees chose the official name of Bolz Hall.

Dr. Harold A. Bolz directed much of the College of Engineering’s expansion. Bolz was born on May 27, 1911, in Cleveland. He attended the Case Institute of Technology (later known as Case Western Reserve University), where he attained his bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1933 and his master’s degree in 1935, also in mechanical engineering.

Bolz took a position with the Weatherhead Company of Cleveland for three years, before he took a teaching position at Purdue University. He came to Ohio State as an associate dean in 1954 after eight years teaching at Purdue; he was named Dean of Ohio State’s College of Engineering in 1958. He held that position until his retirement in 1976, at which point he was named Dean Emeritus. After his retirement, he briefly served as interim president of Ohio Northern University in 1979.

Bolz Hall was named in his honor ten years later, in 1989.

Harold Bolz was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education, of which he served as president.

His wife, Harriet, was a composer, and of his three sons, two became surgeons and one became an electrical engineer. Bolz himself was described as a family man, but also a poet, avid reader and horticulturist. Dr. Bolz passed away at the age of 88 on October 27, 1999.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Bolz Hall

Boyd Laboratory

In 1931, the Board of Trustees approved a proposal by the State Highway Department to build an addition to the Engineering Experiment Station (later known as Haskett Hall). Finished in 1933, the three-story first housed offices of Division Six of the highway department as well as its testing lab.

The university took possession of the building in August 1961, and remodeling began in 1964. That same year, it was renamed the James Ellsworth Boyd Laboratory, after the engineering professor who taught at Ohio State for nearly 50 years.

Boyd first began his Ohio State career as a student, living in the Old North Dorm until his graduation in May 1891. He immediately received a job teaching physics at his alma mater. By 1901 he was an associate professor of mathematics. Sometime during this period Boyd took a year off teaching and went to Cornell to receive his master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

In 1906 Ohio State’s Board of Trustees established the department of mechanical engineering, appointing Boyd as its first chairman, a position he held until his “official” retirement in 1938.

At the June Commencement in 1938, Boyd was awarded the Lamme Medal, the university’s highest honor for engineers, for “meritorious achievement in engineering.”

Retirement did not interfere much with his schedule: He continued to teach, was given emeritus status in 1947, and continued to hold office hours almost every day until 1948 when his health began to fail. He passed away at the age of 86 on May 10, 1950.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Boyd Laboratory

Bradley Hall

The Ohio State Board of Trustees named this dorm “Carolyn Bradley Hall” on Dec. 13, 1954, to honor Carolyn Bradley, a professor in Ohio State’s School of Fine and Applied Arts who had died earlier that year.

Bradley received degrees from Earlham College and the John Herron Art School in Indianapolis, and her master’s degree in fine arts from the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes at San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her love of travel led her to undertake many educational missions for the U.S. Department of State, including trips to the West Indies, Central and South America, earning her the nickname of “paintbrush ambassador.” She was a faculty member of Ohio State from 1932 to 1954.

Construction on the dorm began in the spring of 1953 and was completed in December 1954. It was first occupied by women in January 1955 and officially dedicated in May of that year. Though it was constructed alongside Paterson Hall and is part of Kennedy Commons, its cost is listed separately as $1,107,853.01.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Bradley Hall

Bricker Hall

Opened in 1924, Bricker Hall was originally known as the Administration Building since offices, such as the registrar, were located there. The Faculty Club also was located here on the third floor until 1940 when it moved across the Oval to its current location.

In 1983, it was named after John Bricker, a former U.S. Senator and Ohio Governor, whose ties to Ohio State included his days here as a student (he received his B.A. in 1916) and his 21-year tenure as a member of the Board of Trustees.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Bricker Hall

Brown Hall  

The construction of Brown Hall, designed by Joseph N. Bradford and an example of Neoclassical architecture, began in March 1903 and was completed in time for the start of classes that fall. It was named in July of that year for Christopher N. Brown, Dean of the College of Engineering.

Brown Hall played host to many schools, including the Knowlton School of Architecture (until 2004). It was demolished in late 2009.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Brown Hall

Brown Hall Annex  

The annex to Brown Hall was assembled in stages beginning in 1892. Originally constructed as a boiler room, the boiler room eventually received an annex of its own and served as a power plant as well as a laundry. An engine house was built close by (and was later expanded in the 1910s) and eventually the two were connected in the late 1930s.

The building’s last purpose was as classroom and drafting space for the architecture department. The department moved much of its equipment to Ives Hall when the annex was demolished in 1991 to make way for a new math building and accompanying science-and-engineering library.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Brown Hall Annex

Browning Amphitheater

The Browning Dramatic Society (associated with the Browning Literary Society), an all-girls group dedicated to performing the works of Shakespeare, was responsible for the founding of the amphitheater on June 11, 1926. The first play to be performed in the Grecian-style amphitheater was A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

However, its use dwindled after the Browning Literary Society dissolved, and the site – still only a grass stage with tiered seating – eventually served only as study space for students.

In 1985, Ohio Staters, Inc. financed the renovations to transform the space into a fully functional outdoor performance center, adding a concrete stage, electric lighting and dressing rooms.

more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Browning Amphitheater