• 1929

     

    The University of California’s Southern Branch, later called UCLA, opens in Westwood with four buildings: Royce Hall, The Library (now Powell Library), Chemistry and Geology Building (now Haines Hall). Physics and Biology Building (now Kaplan Hall)

  • 1931

     

    Kerckhoff Hall (student union) opens in January. Mira Hershey Hall (women’s dormitory) opens in October for 137 residents

  • 1959

     

    West Wing Addition to Mira Hershey Hall opens for male students. Together, both wings can accommodate 327 residents.

  • 1965

     

    The university proposes turning Hershey Hall into a graduate dormitory. Women residents protest against the coed arrangement.

  • 1969

     

    Mira Hershey Hall becomes coed housing for graduate students

  • 1994

     

    The Northridge earthquake causes considerable damage to the West Wing addition; it is deemed unsafe for residential use.

  • 2006

     

    West Wing demolished

  • 2012

     

    Terasaki Life Sciences Building opens

  • 2012

     

    Mira Hershey Hall reopens for administrative uses in the Life Sciences following seismic reinforcement, repairs, and upgrades.

Fun Facts

  • Mira Hershey Hall was the first building funded by a woman philanthropist and named for her
  • Women residents of Mira Hershey Hall were not allowed to enter the residence’s cafeteria wearing curlers
  • Men visiting women in Mira Hershey Hall could only do so on Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • Mira Hershey was related to Milton S. Hershey, who created the Hershey’s chocolate empire in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the city where Mira Hershey was born
  • During the 1965 protest against making Hershey Hall a graduate coed residence, slogans of the women included “We love men, but not for breakfast” and “Don’t make our nunnery a brewery”
  • Hershey Hall Architect Douglas McLelland departed from the Romanesque style of the original four campus buildings and from the Gothic Revival style of Kerckhoff Hall, designing an Italian Renaissance-style building, light, even feminine in feeling