WOMEN WHO BUILT THE BERKELEY CAMPUS (cont.)
an essay by Sandra P. Epstein, Ph.D.
Crossing Gayley Road and climbing up the hill beside the stadium we reach Bowles Hall, recently renovated and reorganized, but with long ties to the Berkeley campus. In its first year of operation in 1869 the University of California enrolled 40 young men at its single site in Oakland, but by 1900 undergraduate and graduate enrollment at Berkeley totaled almost two thousand students. Undergraduate enrollment alone by 1920 reached almost 10,000 students. Not surprisingly, providing housing for students near the campus was a significant concern. From earliest days the state assumed no responsibility for providing dormitory housing and the only hope was that resources could be raised from private sources.
By 1923, a period of prosperity and greater calm ensued for the Berkeley campus, and the new president, William Wallace Campbell, set about finding sources of private support for university-sponsored student housing. Much to his delight, early in 1927, Mary McNear Bowles announced her decision to memorialize her husband with a gift of $250,000 to be used for the construction of a dormitory for 204 male students. The building was to provide for the “spiritual and physical welfare of students registered in the University of California.” Bowles Hall was dedicated in 1929 and became California’s first state-owned dormitory. Built in the style of Oxford and Cambridge, it also was the first residential college constructed in the United States[1]. Mrs. Bowles subsequently contributed an additional $100,000, bringing her gift to $350,000 to cover the unanticipated costs of construction and furnishings.
Mary A. McNear was born in 1860 in Petaluma, California, the daughter of George McNair, who had prospered in the grain and shipping business. She was a graduate of UC Berkeley, class of 1882, and likely met her husband during this time. Mary McNear and Philip Bowles were married in 1883 and had four children.
Philip Ernest Bowles was born in 1859 in Arcata, California, the son of a pioneer Humboldt county family. After earning his Berkeley undergraduate degree and working for a time with his father-in-law, he entered the banking business. By 1893, he was affiliated with the First National Bank of Oakland and not long after was elected its president. Ten years later he established the American National Bank of San Francisco, the predecessor of the American Trust Company. In 1911, Bowles was appointed to the UC Board of Regents on which he served until his retirement in 1922. Philip Bowles died in 1926 at the age of 67. Mrs. Bowles died in 1935 and was survived by two sons. In 2017, it was announced that Bowles Hall would no longer be run by the University but was renovated and reopened as a co-ed facility run by a private foundation.
[1] The English college model was organized with students living in the residence for their entire undergraduate career. Their meals, academic counseling, organized activities, and social events were centered at the college. Over time, Bowles Hall gradually reverted to the traditional residential model for student housing.