Hearst Gymnasium for Women | |
Location | Bancroft Way, Berkeley, California |
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Coordinates | 37°52′10″N122°15′24″W / 37.869400°N 122.256800°W |
Built | 1927 |
Architect | Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan |
NRHP reference No. | 82004645 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 25, 1982 |
Hearst Gymnasium for Women, now called the Hearst Memorial Gymnasium, is a historical building in Berkeley, California. The Hearst Gymnasium for Women was built in 1927. The building and it site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 1982. [2] The Hearst Gymnasium for Women was designed by Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan. The Hearst Gymnasium for Women was named after Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842–1919), the mother of William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951). William Randolph paid for the gymnasium building as a memorial to his mother. The gymnasium replaced the original gymnasium that was lost in 1922 fire. The original wooden gymnasium was called Hearst Hall designed by Maybeck. Hearst Gymnasium for Women operated as retreat center for women, as it also had fine lodging, a fine dining hall, social center and three outdoor swimming pools. The building also houses the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. The gymnasium has: dance studios, classrooms, conference rooms, a large and small gymnasium. Next to the gymnasium are the Hearst Tennis Courts, Hearst North Field, and the Hearst Field Annex. When opened the gymnasium also had an indoor rifle range. [3] [4] [5]
Hearst Gym, a long, two-story rectangular structure made of stuccoed reinforced concrete, is positioned along the east-west axis of the campus on Bancroft Way. Reflecting the eclectic Classic style of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the building exudes a sense of symmetry and regularity. Its south elevation features three rectangular pavilions with uniform facades that project outward from the main structure. Elevated above street level, the south facade overlooks a terrace with a retaining wall adorned by a Classical balustrade and large urns in a free Classic style. A staircase descends from the sidewalk to the street, framed by low walls with rounded coping and a single urn. This design uniquely integrates the building with the street compositionally.
The pavilions include aedicules, while the building itself has a flat roof with a simple entablature and a slightly projecting cornice. The recessed parts of the facade contain four windows extending from the ground to the architrave, featuring small, square panes of glass set in bronze muntins, divided by a bronze frieze with Pompeian or Florentine decorations. These windows are further adorned with pairs of bronze colonettes. Above, fluted pilasters with composite capitals and plain bases support the window hoods.
On the main terrace level of the north elevation lies a large central pool flanked by open courtyards. Inside, there are six gymnasiums, offices, a library, and lounges arranged around the courtyards and pool. The pool court is surrounded by a low wall with a molded base, seat, and top, designed to hold plants. The ends of this wall are capped with monumental hollow pedestals featuring sculpted figures of dancing ladies with garlands. Topped with dentil cornices, these pedestals serve as planters for small trees. The central pavilion doorway, designed similarly to the windows, is flanked by low balustrades with statues and urns at the ends. This "stage-set" effect is enhanced by the absence of any equipment except a diving board. The east and west facades share similarities but are less prominent.
Despite some interior modifications, the architectural integrity of Hearst Gym remains intact.
When it was designed and built, the Hearst Gymnasium for Women stood out as the premier recreational facility for women at any institution of higher education in the state. Its architectural significance is highlighted by its designers, two of California's foremost architects, Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan. The gymnasium embodies a romantic Classicism style akin to Maybeck’s renowned Palace of Fine Arts for the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The building also holds historical importance due to its connection with notable Californians Phoebe Apperson Hearst and her son, William Randolph Hearst, who dedicated the building as a memorial to his mother. It replaced the previous Hearst Hall, also designed by Maybeck, which was destroyed by fire in 1922. Hearst Gymnasium was envisioned as a comprehensive sanctuary for women, offering comfortable spaces for lounging, dining, and sleeping, catering especially to female students who commuted and spent long hours on campus. Upon its completion, it was reputed to be the largest and most advanced women's gymnasium in the nation. The facility's requirement of 325,000 gallons of water for its pools even led to the construction of a new water treatment system on Bancroft Way by the City of Berkeley.
Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and the co-founder of the National Parent-Teacher Association.
Julia Morgan was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career. She is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.
Arthur Brown Jr. was an American architect, based in San Francisco and designer of many of its landmarks. He is known for his work with John Bakewell Jr. as Bakewell and Brown, along with later works after the partnership dissolved in 1927.
Bernard Ralph Maybeck was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He worked primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, designing public buildings, including the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and also private houses, especially in Berkeley, where he lived and taught at the University of California. A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California, Berkeley, is home to the university's Materials Science and Engineering Department, with research and teaching spaces for the subdisciplines of biomaterials; chemical and electrochemical materials; computational materials; electronic, magnetic, and optical materials; and structural materials. The Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as part of California Historical Landmark #946. It was designed by John Galen Howard, with the assistance of architect and Berkeley alumna Julia Morgan and the Dean of the College of Mines at that time, Samuel B. Christy. It was the first building on that campus designed by Howard. Construction began in 1902 as part of the Phoebe Hearst campus development plan. The building was dedicated to the memory of her husband George Hearst, who had been a successful miner.
The University House is a residence and venue for official events on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Designed by the architect Albert Pissis and completed in 1911, it was formerly named President's House while it served as the home of the president of the University of California, starting with Benjamin Ide Wheeler and ending with Robert Gordon Sproul. Since 1965, it has been the home of the Chancellor of the Berkeley campus.
Henri Jean Émile Bénard was a French architect and painter.
Northside is a principally residential neighborhood in Berkeley, California, located north of the University of California, Berkeley campus, east of Oxford Street, and south of Cedar Street. There is a small shopping area located at Euclid and Hearst Avenues, at the northern entrance to the university. The Graduate Theological Union is located one block west of Euclid Avenue, in an area nicknamed Holy Hill. The north fork of Strawberry Creek runs southwestward across Northside, mostly culverted under buildings and pavement, to the campus.
John Galen Howard was an American architect and educator who began his career in New York before moving to California. He was the principal architect at several firms in both states and employed Julia Morgan early in her architectural career.
Millicent Veronica Hearst, was the wife of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Willson was a vaudeville performer in New York City whom Hearst admired, and they married in 1903. The couple had five sons, but began to drift apart in the mid-1920s, when Millicent became tired of her husband's longtime affair with actress Marion Davies.
The campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck, and their colleague Julia Morgan. Subsequent tenures as supervising architect held by George W. Kelham and Arthur Brown, Jr. saw the addition of several buildings in neoclassical and other revival styles, while the building boom after World War II introduced modernist buildings by architects such as Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, John Carl Warnecke, Gardner Dailey, Anshen & Allen, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Recent decades have seen additions including the postmodernist Haas School of Business by Charles Willard Moore, Soda Hall by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and the East Asian Library by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.
The McLellan-Sweat Mansion is a historic house museum on High Street in Portland, Maine. It forms the rear component of the Portland Museum of Art complex. Built in 1800–01, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved Federal style brick townhouse.
Wyntoon is a private estate in rural Siskiyou County, California, owned by the Hearst Corporation. Architects Willis Polk, Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan all designed structures for Wyntoon, beginning in 1899.
The Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, also known as the Cass Gilbert National Register District, is a group of five buildings, including City Hall, on Field and Grand streets in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. They are large stone and brick structures, all designed by Cass Gilbert in the Georgian Revival and Second Renaissance Revival architectural styles, built during the 1910s. In 1978 they were designated as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are now contributing properties to the Downtown Waterbury Historic District.
Charles Stetson Wheeler was an American attorney who served as a Regent of the University of California, and he was a member of the Committee of Fifty working to maintain order after the devastating fire following the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco. Wheeler was active in Republican Party politics.
A. C. Schweinfurth (1864–1900), born Albert Cicero Schweinfurth, was an American architect. He is associated with the First Bay Tradition, an architectural style from the period of the 1880s to early 1920s.
California Hall is one of the original "classical core" Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival buildings on the UC Berkeley campus. Construction began in 1903 under the lead of University Architect John Galen Howard after the university's adoption of the Phoebe Hearst master architectural plan for the Berkeley campus. The building opened in August, 1905. In 1982, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places, and is designated as an architectural feature of California Historic Landmark no. 946. In 1991, the Landmarks Preservation Committee of the City of Berkeley designated it Berkeley City Landmark no. 147. It currently houses the University of California Berkeley Chancellor's Office and the Graduate Division.
The First Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California is a former church building that was built in 1898. It was designed by Albert C. Schweinfurth, who made unconventional use of Shingle Style architecture, usually applied to homes, in designing a church. It was also highly unusual for a church building in several other ways, including the use of industrial-style metal sash windows, sections of redwood tree trunks as pillars, the strong horizontal emphasis, and a semicircular apse with a conical roof. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California State Historic Resources Survey, and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. It has also been known as University Dance Studio and Bancroft Dance Studio for its current use.
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This article incorporates public domain material from National Register of Historic Places: Inventory Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service. September 1981.