Qualla: Hardy Memorial Tower

Hardy Memorial Tower: Introduction

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lo2013, CC BY-SA 3.0. For nearly seventy years, two Works Progress Administration murals lay concealed behind ceiling tiles in Hardy Memorial Tower, forgotten by generations of students who walked beneath them. In 2004, workers discovered them during a renovation project, pulling back acoustic panels to reveal artwork that chronicled San Diego's working history. One depicted men unloading National Recovery Act packages near the Hillcrest neighborhood. The other showed the multiethnic workforce of San Diego's tuna canning industry. These hidden paintings captured something essential about the tower itself, a structure that has witnessed transformations of identity across nine decades while standing as San Diego State University's most recognizable symbol.

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Image: Lo2013 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hardy Memorial Tower: Rising on Montezuma Mesa

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Allstarguy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hardy Memorial Tower was built in 1931 as one of the original buildings when San Diego State moved to its Montezuma Mesa campus, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by architect William Templeton Johnson. Rising eleven stories and 119 feet above Montezuma Mesa, the tow...

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Image: Allstarguy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hardy Memorial Tower: Two Hundred Four Bells

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvin Vera, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1946, Senator and Mrs. Ed Fletcher presented the Fletcher Symphonic Carillon to the university, commemorating its fiftieth anniversary and memorializing students lost in war. What began as 24 amplified chimes evolved over decades into a complete 204-bell carillon spanning six ...

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Image: Alvin Vera | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hardy Memorial Tower: Art Behind the Tiles

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Allstarguy, CC BY-SA 4.0. When Genevieve Burgeson Bredo painted 'NRA Packages' in 1936, she documented a specific moment in American history. The mural shows three men unloading boxes marked with the blue eagle symbol of the National Recovery Administration near San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood. George ...

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Image: Allstarguy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hardy Memorial Tower: Symbol and Landmark

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Allstarguy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hardy Memorial Tower stands today in the northwest corner of Hepner Hall Quad, surrounded by classrooms and administrative offices for the College of Health and Human Services. The tower no longer serves as a library. That function moved to the larger Love Library decades ago. Bu...

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Image: Allstarguy | CC BY-SA 4.0