For 106 years, students have passed by the white classical revival house with the rose-lined driveway at the corner of Mayfield Avenue and Campus Drive. The home was built by Harriett Dunn, a friend of Jane Stanford’s who had previously operated a boarding house on campus, and her husband, Orrin. When she died in 1946, she left the house to her cousin, math professor Harold Bacon, ’28, MA ’29, PhD ’33, and his wife, Rosamond (Clarke), ’30, MA ’32, a well-known and well-liked campus couple. The University bought the home from their son in 1998.
Now, the Dunn-Bacon House has a new occupant: Hillel at Stanford. After a multimillion-dollar renovation, the Harold and Libby Ziff Center for Jewish Life opened its doors to students January 10 with a full-fledged Matzo Ball.
With a full-time staff of eight and a constituency of 2,000 Jewish students, Hillel had outgrown its 700-square-foot home in the basement of the Old Union Clubhouse. The new digs, which are available for use by other community groups, include a computer cluster, wireless Internet access, a flat-screen TV, a library of Judaica—and a hidden staircase to the second floor.
