Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is the largest single dormitory in the world. Bancroft Hall, named after former Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, is home for the entire brigade of 4,000 midshipmen, and contains some 1,700 rooms, 4.8 miles (7.7 km) of corridors, and 33 acres (13 ha) of floor space. All the basic facilities that midshipmen need for daily living are found in the hall. It is referred to as "Mother B" or "The Hall" by Midshipmen.
Bancroft Hall was designed by Beaux-Arts architect Ernest Flagg and its central rotunda and first two wings were built in 1901–06. Over the intervening years it has been expanded to encompass eight wings of five stories ("decks") each numbered 0-4. The original two wings are now the 3rd and 4th wings; the next pair, added in the 1920s, are now the 5th and 6th wings; a pair added in the late 1930s became the 1st and 2nd wings; and a final pair were added in the 1960s as the 7th and 8th wings. In addition to the midshipmen rooms, Bancroft Hall houses offices for the Commandant of Midshipmen, six battalion officers, six battalion chaplains, thirty company officers and their senior enlisted leaders, a barbershop, bank, travel office, a small restaurant known as "Steerage," textbook store, general store ("The Midshipmen Store"), laundromat, uniform store, cobbler shop, the USNA Band, the USNA branch of the United States Postal Service, a gymnasium, spaces for extracurricular activities, and full medical & dental clinics as well as small optometry and orthopedics clinics. The Hall has its own ZIP code (21412).
A nine-year renovation project, completed by Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. and RTKL Associates Inc. in 2003, included 1,600 miles (2,600 km) of wiring to equip the building with a data communication network.
The building also contains King Hall (named after Fleet Admiral Ernest King), where all midshipmen are fed simultaneously three times daily, and Memorial Hall (see below). Memorial Hall and the Rotunda of Bancroft Hall are open to the general public, but access to the rest of the building is normally limited to assigned Naval personnel.
There are rooms in Bancroft dedicated to each Academy graduate Medal of Honor recipient in the Navy or Marine Corps.
Read more about Bancroft Hall: The Rotunda and Memorial Hall, Commander-in-Chief's Trophy
Famous quotes containing the word hall:
“I was afraid the waking arm would break
From the loose earth and rub against his eyes
A fist of trees, and the whole country tremble
In the exultant labor of his rise;”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)