Construction on Frederick Douglass Hall was completed in the summer of 1968, and opened as a male residence hall in the fall of 1968. Since its opening date, Frederick Douglass has been used for the same purpose uninterrupted. The first floor houses a large study lounge, laundry area, and community lounge that received updates to the floor and ceilings in the sumer of 2010. 144 freshman males are housed on the three upper levels, complete with newly renovated community bathrooms and trash chutes.

Named in honor of...

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey

The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February of 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. He spent his early years with his grandparents and with an aunt, seeing his mother only four or five times before her death when he was seven. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld. There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and abolitionists. After spending seven years in Baltimore, Douglass was hired out to a farm run by a brutal "slave breaker" who whipped daily and barely fed him. On January 1, 1836, Douglass made a resolution that he would be free by the end of the year. He planned an escape. But early in April he was jailed after his plan was discovered. Two years later, while living in Baltimore and working at a shipyard, Douglass would finally realize his dream; he fled the city on September 3, 1838 and lived under his new name, Frederick Douglass. Always striving to further educate himself, Douglass continued his reading. He joined various organizations in New Bedford, including a black church. He attended Abolitionists' meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, the Liberator and in 1841, he saw Garrison speak at the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. Several days later Douglass gave his own speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket, and later was asked to become a lecturer for the Society for three years. The opportunity was the launch of a career that would continue throughout Douglass' long life.