{"nrhp_refnum":"71000132","name":"Mills Hall","other_names":["Mills College"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Mills College campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakland","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.77977715000003,"lon":-122.18199663299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-10-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Mills Hall is a three- and four-story Second Empire (Mansard style) building on the Mills College campus in Oakland, Alameda County, California, designed and built in 1871 by S.C. Bugbee and Sons as the college's original seminary building.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the building is a good example of Second Empire or Mansard architecture with a symmetrical U plan. It also marks the 1871 move of Mills College from Benicia to its permanent Oakland campus. The nomination places the college among the nation's leading women's colleges.","narrative":"Mills Hall is the original seminary building of Mills College in Oakland, California. Construction began in June 1870, and in 1871 the school moved there from Benicia, where it had begun in 1852 as a Young Ladies Protestant Seminary. Dr. and Mrs. C.T. Mills had bought 55 acres at the Oakland site. Bugbee and Sons designed the building in the Second Empire, or Mansard, style. It has a symmetrical U plan, a four-story central section, three-story wings, bay-windowed pavilions and round-headed dormers set in a concave Mansard roof. The frame is wood with rustic siding, and the reception hall is finished in the Ionic order. The building first held classrooms, living quarters and a hospital ward. Later it served mainly as a dormitory and social hall with few changes, and it is now used for administration. The nomination also stresses the college's standing in women's education, noting its first degrees in 1889 and full accreditation in 1918.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":"S.C. Bugbee and Sons, Architect (HABS sheet also lists Bugbee & Sons as architect and J.H. Wilber as builder)","architectural_style":"Second Empire or Mansard Style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in good condition and altered; used as administrative headquarters of Mills College, with the HABS sheet noting use as a residence hall.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.257235-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/71000132.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000132/4c45cd1eac-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000132/4c45cd1eac-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jennifer1121","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mills-College-Holmgren-Meadow.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jennifer1121</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mills-College-Holmgren-Meadow.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858280","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q93210335"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/mills-hall-71000132/"}