Myles Standish Hall: A Historic Landmark at Boston University
Myles Standish Hall, a distinctive boat-shaped dormitory on Boston University’s East Campus along Commonwealth Avenue, boasts a rich and colorful history that sets it apart from other BU residences. Originally constructed in 1925 as a hotel, it has evolved through various phases, housing notable figures and undergoing significant transformations.
From Luxury Hotel to Student Residence
The building, designed by Arthur Bowditch, who also designed the Paramount Theatre, first opened its doors in 1928. It was initially conceived as a luxury hotel and apartment building, offering amenities and a prime location in the developing Back Bay neighborhood near the Kenmore Square trolley station. The hotel quickly became a hub for grand social events, including society weddings and balls. Its proximity to Fenway Park also made it a favorite destination for visiting baseball clubs, with Babe Ruth being a frequent guest. The exterior shape of the building comes to a point, to resemble the bow of the ships the Pilgrims used to travel to what would become the United States.
Adding to its intriguing past, Myles Standish Hall reportedly housed speakeasies in its basement during Prohibition. Former Myles R.A. Daryl Healea told BU Today that these underground establishments contributed to the building's colorful reputation during the Roaring Twenties.
In 1949, Boston University acquired the Myles Standish Hotel to address a surge in enrollment driven by the G.I. Bill, which enabled thousands of World War II veterans to pursue higher education. The purchase, spearheaded by university president Daniel L. Marsh, marked the beginning of the building's transformation into a dormitory for male students returning from the war.
Architectural Significance and Design
Located at 610 Beacon Street in Kenmore Square, Myles Standish Hall occupies a prominent corner site at the intersection of Beacon Street and Bay State Road. This location places it within the Bay State Road/Back Bay West Architectural Conservation District, a historic area characterized by early 20th-century structures blending residential and commercial elements.
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The nine-story building, with its basement level, features a unique design that resembles the prow of a ship due to the irregular proportions of the land on which it was built. The exterior facade, primarily composed of brick and cast stone, reflects early 20th-century hotel architecture. The ground-level service and specialty shop fronts along Beacon Street reflect its initial commercial intent, while the upper levels emphasize its vertical height and urban context.
Notable Residents and Historical Events
Over the years, Myles Standish Hall has housed many notable individuals. Before becoming a dorm, when it was still a hotel, it housed VIPs such as Babe Ruth and the Yankees. Martin Luther King Jr. resided there while earning his PhD in systematic theology from 1951 to 1955, sharing a room with classmate John H. Howard Stern, of America’s Got Talent and Sirius XM, is also among its alumni. The hall even found its way into a reference in Death of a Salesman (the “Standish Arms”).
In 1970, Myles Standish Hall became the first Boston University dormitory to implement a 24-hour visitation policy, allowing guests of any gender. This progressive policy change reflected broader cultural shifts toward relaxed social norms on college campuses during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Challenges and Renovations
Despite its historical significance, the pre-World War II construction of Myles Standish Hall presented persistent maintenance challenges throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s and 1990s. The aging structure strained under the demands of high-density student housing. In the summer of 1973, structural deficiencies led to partial condemnation and necessitated emergency repairs by university facilities staff to ensure safety and habitability before the fall semester. In the summer of 1973, Myles was "condemned" due to structural problems. BU obtained alternate dormitory space that year at Fensgate Hall down Beacon St., with dining across the street at Charlesgate Hall.
In 1979, with the bankruptcy of Grahm Junior College, the University purchased the school's administration building adjacent to Myles. This building had several uses before being permanently converted into dormitory space and annexed to Myles, giving birth to what is now known as Myles Annex.
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To address these issues, Boston University undertook a major renovation of the 90-year-old building from 2015 to 2018. The $133 million project included a complete rebuild of the interior, the addition of air conditioning, a communal kitchen, a game room, several study spaces, and a TV lounge. As much as 65% of the exterior masonry required careful replacement with matching materials, and an entire exterior wall required rebuilding. Extensive granite repair, cast stone replacement, and rebuilding of the facades at the first and second-floor walls were required to restore the storefronts which had been removed in 1949. Most of these materials were re-used in the construction process, and the entire building was made more energy efficient. The main entrance on Beacon Street and secondary entrance on Bay State Road were re-constructed to reflect the original entrance design, complete with a canopy. The surrounding intersection and sidewalks were upgraded to create a safer area for pedestrians.
The renovation also focused on preserving the building's historic character. According to Greg Galer, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston University's decision to restore the building rather than replace it "makes an important statement about the importance of preservation and about sustainability."
Current Use and Features
Today, Myles Standish Hall is home to 730 students, largely underclassmen, who reside in a variety of suite configurations of two to eight bedrooms. The predominant unit has two single bedrooms and one double-occupancy bedroom sharing a bathroom.
The Myles fourth floor is designated as BU’s Global House, a living/learning community where students are assigned to language clusters and immersed in a culture of their choosing, with options ranging from Arabic to Japanese.
The layout of the building provides a lot of study space, both in the common rooms of suites and in study lounges in the building. The BU Shuttle stops in front of the building, providing easy access to the further parts of campus.
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Controversy Surrounding the Name
Myles Standish (c. 1584-1656) was an English military officer who played a pivotal role in the early settlement of Plymouth Colony as its de facto military leader. While his contributions to the colony's survival are acknowledged, his actions towards Native American tribes have drawn significant criticism.
In 2021, the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag requested that the dorm be renamed Wituwamat Memorial Hall to honor a leading Native American figure massacred by Myles Standish. Myles Standish, a military officer for the early Plymouth Colony Pilgrim settlers, committed acts of violence against the Native American tribes in the area, leading the Massacre at Wessagusset, in which he and his company lured members of the Neponset Band of the Massachusetts Tribe into a small building and murdered them, taking Chief Wituwamat’s head as a so-called trophy. In the Summer of 2021, postdoctoral candidate at the Kilachand Honors College Travis Franks teamed with Thomas Green of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag to launch a petition to rename Myles Standish Hall to Wituwamat Memorial Hall. In 2022, two BU students, Adam Shamsi (CAS’24) and Anne Jospeh (CAS’24), penned an open letter on behalf of over 150 student organizations and clubs to BU’s then-President Robert A. Brown and the Board of Trustees demanding the University to rename Myles Standish Hall and supporting Indigenous students, faculty, staff, and community members. Anna Ward, a Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development lecturer in counseling psychology, and Laura Jiménez, Wheelock’s associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion and a senior lecturer in literacy education, led a campaign in the Wheelock Faculty Assembly, which advanced it to the BU Faculty Council in 2023.
Robert A. Brown, President of Boston University, responded to this effort and stated Standish's "role in the history of the founding of Massachusetts, and thus our nation, was significant. To remove his name from the residence hall would discount his significant role in our history." Opposition to the renaming was limited and primarily expressed by university leadership initially resisting the change. In February 2023, amid renewed student petitions, BU President Robert A.
Despite the controversy, the building continues to be known as Myles Standish Hall.
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