BGSU Historic Campus Tour

Continue Walking Tour | Residence Hall Tour

Throughout the 1960s, the size of the student population, academic facilities, and physical features of Bowling Green State University were all expanding greatly. The Board of Trustees approved plans for the construction of a quadrangle dormitory that would form part of a series of buildings within close proximity of each other that would provide a "campus-within-a campus" atmosphere. Although the other buildings were never built, Harshman Quadrangle continues to play a major role in providing housing to students living on campus at the University.

Listed below are additional highlights in the history of the building:

• 1961, Board of Trustees approves plans for construction of the building.
• 1964, construction completed at a final cost of $6 million.
• 1964, officially dedicated as Ralph Garling Harshman Quadrangle after the president of the University, 1961-1963 and prior to that Dean of the College of Business Administration.
• 1965, unit A dormitory becomes an "international wing" housing various international students, unit B dormitory becomes a bilingual hall on two of the four floors.
• 1967, Harshman residents participate in a contest to name the four halls each one starting with one of the letters A through D. The contest winners are as follows: Winesburg, Ohio, Louis Bromfield was a novelist and conservationist from Ohio John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was a pioneer who traveled and planted apple orchards in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio. After 200 years, some of those trees still bear apples. Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906, from Dayton, Ohio, was the first African American poet to gain national prominence.
• 1968, "kitchenettes" open in the two male halls making up the quad.
• 1975, "Free University" program established in Anderson Hall, in which, staff and students taught courses outside the classroom.
• 1995, renovation completed as part of a $15 million Kreischer/Harshman renovation project. Improvements included re-painting, making the front-desk handicap accessible, installation of a new fire alarm system, and renovation of the bathrooms.
• 2007, courtyard entrance renovated, roof replaced