{"nrhp_refnum":"82004640","name":"Durant Hall","other_names":["Boalt Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Oxford St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkeley","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.87128018300007,"lon":-122.26011853999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-03-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Law","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Durant Hall, formerly Boalt Hall, is a granite-faced, steel-framed university building on the south side of Campanile Way on the central University of California campus in Berkeley. John Galen Howard designed it in 1911.","why_significant":"The nomination cites its place in the original campus nucleus, its use as the first home of the Law School, and its name honoring Henry Durant, the university's third president. It is also called one of the most important campus buildings architecturally, with one of the few original interiors showing the early university's construction standards. It helps extend the east-west axis across Campanile Way toward Sather Gate.","narrative":"Durant Hall, originally Boalt Hall, is a small rectangular university building of steel frame and granite facing on Campanile Way in Berkeley, designed by John Galen Howard and completed in 1911. It was built as a memorial to Judge John H. Boalt, funded by a $100,000 gift from his widow and $50,000 raised by California lawyers. It was meant to balance California Hall, and its facades use Classical details such as Doric columns, pilasters, a Greek key frieze and a tiled hip roof with a skylight. Inside, a vaulted hall leads to a two-story skylit library with yellow marble Doric columns and original furnishings. The Law School occupied the building from 1911 to 1951, when it was renamed for Henry Durant, the university's third president. Today it houses the Department of Oriental Languages and the East Asiatic Library. Its importance rests on its architecture, its early role in campus planning, and its law school history.","period_of_significance":"1900-present","architect_builder":"John Galen Howard","architectural_style":"Neo-Classic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as excellent and unaltered on its original site; now occupied by the Department of Oriental Languages, with the East Asiatic Library in the former Lawyers' Memorial Hall.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.244441-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82004640.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004640/3eca8ea02c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004640/3eca8ea02c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"James Lin","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durant_Hall_-_2015-07-25.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">James Lin</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:Durant_Hall_-_2015-07-25.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857318","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durant_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107294148"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/durant-hall-82004640/"}