It’s hard to believe that I first wrote most of this article more than two years ago. You may notice my very inflammatory tone (the title being a dead giveaway, after Jacob Riis’ 1890 book about New York tenements) over a singular dorm at Ohio State that has little architectural importance, as well as the lack of my usual organization of its history. I have not edited the original history text since the time that I first wrote it, beyond adding missing information, as a memorial to how this blog was originally conceived.
Photos from April 2024-September 2025.
Baker Hall has a very nasty reputation at Ohio State. It’s known for being one of the worst (if not the worst) residence halls on campus. Pretty much anyone who asks what dorm you live in cringes at the mention of it. My favorite response from when I told someone was “My condolences.” It’s easy to make fun of Baker for its obvious shortcomings--age, lack of AC, bug problems, etc. These are valid criticisms, but I take more personal offense to how this building has been treated over the years. In its 80+ years of life, original features have been obscured and removed, only to be replaced by crap in renovations. It’s important to realize how far this building has really fallen from grace, so let’s start with the history.
History
Baker Hall was designed by university architect Howard Dwight Smith. It was named after Newton D. Baker, a trustee at Ohio State. [2024 - Baker was also the mayor of Cleveland from 1912-1915, as well as the Secretary of War during World War I. He was a much more important individual than I had originally known.] He replaced Egbert Mack in 1932 until his death in 1937. The original building was completed in 1940, with its addition ready for students in autumn 1957. The final addition was finished in 1958 (in conjunction with Stradley, Park, and Smith Halls).
John Herrick’s diagram of the building and its additions. (John Herrick Archives, edited by me)
I have no idea what the hell is in the second addition, it seems to exist in another dimension and there isn’t a clear way to access it through the residential part of Baker. My best guess is that it’s part of the Student Disability Services office that was installed in the building relatively recently. [2024 - Not only did I completely miss John Herrick’s note that it was originally intended for Baker Commons, SLDS’ website also verifies that they are located inside that section.]
Another addition was planned as an alternative for the construction of Steeb Hall, however this was never built.
A dining area inside Baker c. 1940. (Buckeye Stroll)
Baker was designed as a men’s dormitory, back when that was a thing, but women lived in it for a while during a housing shortage until they were moved to other South dorms like Bradley and Paterson Hall. In 1959 it was remodeled to become co-ed, men in the west end and women in the east.
(Buckeye Stroll)
According to Herrick, Baker Hall was also referred to as “Men’s Dormitory” in the architectural drawings, and the food service addition was known as “Baker Commons.”
Baker Hall has six floors (counting the basement); but it goes by the weird European numbering style of the first floor being called ground, while the second floor is actually the “first” floor. It would be cool if Ohio State was actually consistent with what buildings do this, because I lived in Park-Stradley the following year and the floor numbers were normal in that dorm. Confusing. It was constructed out of reinforced concrete with a mainly brick exterior. No sources online mention an architectural style of Baker, and I personally can’t discern any specific style because of the nondescript materiality and few ornamental details. The closest match would be Tudor because of the brick, oriel windows, and curlicue corbels. [I’m going to attribute it as Jacobethan Revival, but I’m still not confident on that] Herrick wrote that Baker Hall had 136,459 assignable square feet as of 1985.
(Not my photo)
This was as far as the documented history by John Herrick went. After that, it’s a crapshoot, since apparently he and I were the only people who cared enough to document any Ohio State architectural history in a publicly accessible manner. All I know is at least one major renovation occurred in 1998, according to a Columbus Dispatch article I found while researching Siebert Hall, which likely added the new carpeting and garish paint colors.
Baker is actually rather pretty on the outside, in my opinion. It remains gloriously original. Almost makes one imagine warm yellow light glowing through the windows on a chilly fall evening while boys straight out of Dead Poets Society and girls in saddle shoes walk outside, maybe a record playing…who the hell am I kidding, these days it’s some bonehead blasting rap music at 2am while everyone else is trying to sleep. So let’s start there.
Photos
Baker was a challenging one to photograph because of the sheer sprawl of the building. The old pictures do a good job, but those were taken before the additions and surrounding buildings were constructed. Here’s my best attempt at a shot of the entire thing:
Here is Baker West--you can tell this is an older photo, as the brick walkway has since been replaced by concrete:
Many of the exits are crowned with these simple porticos:
The west facade:
Nothing really to write home about here. The stone base and dark brick around the fourth floor are interesting, but that’s about it.
This website’s cover page since I started it--a nice play of light and shadow on part of the south facade:
I had never noticed that subtle brickwork before taking that photo, either.
A wider look at Baker West’s south facade from P-Strad’s steps:
The dormers add a nice touch of charm here, too. I had a friend who lived on the fourth floor of Baker, and her room’s ceiling was angled with the roof.
Part of one of the additions, which has a much different, more Modern expression:
Looking at Baker East from the lawn between Smith-Steeb and Park-Strad:
Detail of the rear projection:
I wanna say that part was the new dining room for Baker Commons, but I could be wrong.
Baker East’s main entrance:
The big connector between the two:
All of these exterior photos except these next three are from like a year ago. Apparently, my skills have not developed with time ;). (They have, but I think architectural photography on campus is tougher than other places.)
SLDS’s campus office:
I think these oriel windows are the best part of this building’s design. I like their contrasting green coloring and slight decoration:
Having lived in Baker my freshman year, I know the interior like the back of my hand, so prepare for a guided tour, haha. The lobby is rather Art Deco-ish with terrazzo flooring and simplified fluted columns:
I always thought this quote was interesting:
The game room--I met some friends playing pool and ping-pong here:
Quick stop in the basement before we go upstairs, since one of the entrances is right by the front desk. This door was usually never open, but it seems to lead to the janitors’ quarters:
The thing about Baker’s basement is that it’s very disjointed (at least from a student’s perspective), and there’s lots of random dead ends. Unlike most other campus buildings, you can’t simply walk from one end to the other.
The bike room always freaked me out:
There used to be a bike here that was probably 50-60 years old and missing its handlebars, but it seems to have been removed recently. This is also the only place I’ve been to that has such close access to the steam tunnels.
The other entrance:
Here’s a look at the staircases, which are identical pretty much everywhere across Baker:
I also dig these painted exit signs:
Average Baker hallway:
One thing you’ll notice in future dorm posts is that RAs can no longer put up outside decorations and must use Ohio State-related themes. Of all the SB1 things, this is the one I understand the least. No racism, anti-intellectualism, anti-DEI/woke here, just owning the libs by…banning them from putting up paper cutouts of Spongebob?
Okay, back to the ground floor. If you turn right at Baker West’s front desk, you’ll run into this random cylindrical space:
Through those doors is the “P-Space,” short for the “Performance Space.” I’m sure you can imagine how that nickname was corrupted.
A lot of student orgs and the Arts Scholars use this space frequently. Detail of the wrought-iron balcony:
See what I mean about the basement going nowhere?
Baker East’s front desk was closed, so I got a closer look at it:
Looking east at their entry vestibule:
Crappy kitchen:
I do think Baker East decorated their end better, though:
East’s version of the P-Space is used as a game room/study space:
I also spent a lot of time here with my friends, as most of them lived in Baker East. The old Constitution of Baker is even hanging on the wall here:
Framework 3.0 says Baker will be renovated soon. Thank god!
I know that my 2+ year old commentary laments the lack of original features here, but really the only changes are new flooring and paint, which are honestly not that drastic. Again, Baker is not an architecturally significant building like Hale Hall, Thompson Library, or Orton Hall, so I tend to give buildings like it a little leeway.
Sources:
https://knowltondl.osu.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/4561
https://kb.osu.edu/items/fda7ba55-866b-5724-a47c-ef515f550511
https://library.osu.edu/site/buckeyestroll/baker-hall/
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2011/08/22/dorm-fixes-will-squeeze-ohio/23606897007/
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