Kerckhoff Hall - A Widow's Gothic Gift

Photo: sebi ryffel, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on UCLA Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The building with the pointed spires and pale stone trim is Kerckhoff Hall, and it looks different on purpose. When it opened in 1931 as UCLA's first student union, it was designed in a Gothic style to set it apart from the Romanesque buildings up the hill.

It exists because of a promise. William G. Kerckhoff, a Los Angeles businessman in lumber and hydroelectric power, asked his wife, Louise, on his deathbed to fund a building for students. She gave $715,000 to build it and $100,000 more to furnish it, and she visited the construction site almost daily to check the workmanship and materials. At the dedication on January 20, 1931, about 6,000 students gathered. She was too moved to speak and handed the key to California Governor James Rolph Jr.

Today Kerckhoff holds the offices of the student association and the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, plus the Kerckhoff Coffeehouse, a longtime student hangout. Look up at the spires and the carved stone around the entrance, the details Louise Kerckhoff watched over.

Getting here: Walk west and downhill from the fountain along Bruin Walk to the Gothic spires of Kerckhoff Hall, about four minutes.

Did you know?: On the fourth floor, stained glass shows a redwood tree and a dam, nods to William Kerckhoff's lumber and hydroelectric businesses.

Photo op: From Bruin Walk, angle your camera up at the spires and the carved stone around the main entrance.

More on Wikipedia: William G. Kerckhoff · Daily Bruin · Associated Students of the University of California, Los Angeles · James Rolph

Kerckhoff Hall - A Widow's Gothic Gift

Stops on this tour