Tuesday at Mills College

A quiet afternoon on the Mills campus in Oakland as students were leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Mills, an independent liberal arts college for women with graduate programs for men and women, was founded in 1852, two years after California achieved statehood and the same year the city of Oakland was established.  Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies (chartered 1855) and predates the University of California and Stanford.

In the wake of the U.S. presidential election, it was heartening to visit an historic center for the education of women.

Mills Hall (designed by S.C. Bugbee & Son) became the home of the college in 1871, when Mills moved from Benicia to Oakland.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Believed to be the first FREESTANDING bell tower on a US campus.  Unscathed in the 1906 earthquake.