Sills Hall, then called “The New Class Room Building,” shortly after the completion of its construction circa 1950. “Sills Hall, Exterior,” Local Call Number 288, Bowdoin College Archives. Courtesy of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.
Built in 1950, Sills Hall is named for Kenneth Charles Morton Sills, a Bowdoin Professor of Classics and College President. The building was originally called the “Class Room Building” and renamed in President Sills’s honor after his retirement. The building includes a lecture hall, several classrooms, and offices. The basement holds the Peucinian Room, a small library that shares a name with the Peucinian Society of Bowdoin College, a student organization created in 1805 and centered around debates and philosophy.
Several of the rooms in Sills Hall are named after various faculty members throughout the history of the College with a connection to classics. The Woodruff Room, named for Frank Edward Woodruff, displays the recipients of the Department of Classics awards. Today the Department of Classics is located in Sills Hall.