Missing imageBancroftHall1.png The Brigade of Midshipmen marches into Bancroft Hall during Noon Meal Formation, a ceremony that occurs daily in the fall and spring.
at the
United States Naval Academy in
Annapolis,
Maryland, is the largest
dormitory in the world. It has over 30 acres (120,000 m²) of floor space and three miles (5 km) of passageways. The building houses every
midshipman (over 4,000). Bancroft Hall, designed by
Beaux-Arts architect Ernest Flagg and built in 1901–06, is named after
Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, and has eight wings—arranged, as on a ship, with evens on the port side and odds on the starboard—of five decks each (numbered 0-4). In addition to the midshipmen rooms, Bancroft Hall houses offices for the Commandant of Midshipmen, six
battalion officers, six battalion
chaplains, thirty company officers and their senior enlisted leaders, a
barbershop, a
bank, a travel office, a
textbook store, a general store ("The Naval Academy Store" or "The Mid Store"), a
laundromat, a
cobbler shop, the USNA branch of the
United States Postal Service, and full medical & dental clinics.
Missing imageBancroftHall2.png The interior of the Rotunda of Bancroft Hall; the steps lead up to Memorial Hall
The building is also home to King Hall (named after Fleet Admiral Ernest King), where all midshipmen are fed simultaneously twice daily and three times on Wednesdays (the day of the mandatory dress-up evening meal), and to Memorial Hall, where scrolls and plaques commemorate alumni lost in battle and those who lost their lives while still Midshipmen. Memorial Hall and the Rotunda of Bancroft Hall are open to the general public but access to the rest of the building is normally limited to assigned Naval personnel.
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