'Step' Into Dwight Bentel Hall
By KRITI ASHOK and DAN LU, Dwight Bentel Times Correspondents
Sep. 25, 2008
San Jose, Calif.-Walking past this heavily canopied pathway, even though it is warm and sunny, a sudden breeze sends a chill deep inside. Rustling maple-color leaves make it quite evident that fall has arrived. Some among the diversity of the passers-by of this route are teachers rushing to their classes, groups of chattering students, that old woman who is on her walking spree and a philosopher in making who is trying to connect the loose ends of Marxism. Witnessing all this hustle and bustle is the four silent set of stairs. With a history of almost a hundred years, these stairs are no more than a vestige today. They lead to a huge concrete wall and so they are called “the steps that lead to nowhere”. These stairs serve a plethora of purposes viz. they are the favorite location for a trio-meet, the best place for a loner to grab a siesta and with rampant cigarette butts lying around, a smoker’s paradise. A glance over this grey edifice and it impregnates the onlookers with a multitude of emotions. It is hard to stay stoical when it comes to these stairs. They stand integral to Dwight Bentel Hall and over the past ninety-seven years have shared history with their parent monument. Located at the center of
Dwight Bentel Hall’s history is a story in itself. It was one of the buildings in the primary quadrangle in the center of the University campus since the early 1900s. The original buildings were declared unsafe following the infamous 1906
Daniel No, the Associate Director of Planning, Design and Construction offered a look at the blue prints of the original building and gave an insight into what used to be two separate buildings. The East wing was constructed in 1911 and the West wing was built in 1927. The West wing included a stage and an auditorium. Both of the wings were remodeled in the 1960’s and once again in the early 90’s. An aerial shot of the university from the early 50’s provided by No, shows Tower Hall connected to Dwight Bentel by means of a covered walkway. Blue prints show the exquisite detail of the entrances of the building to the glass work on the doors. In addition to renovation prints, a look at the copies of the blueprints from 1900s offered by No leave one overwhelmed with the rich heritage that Dwight Bentel Hall and subsequently the ‘stairs’ are a part of.
Removal of vines from the sides of the building unveiled a brick-lined building with an amazing detail. Uneven ceilings, sharp 90 degree turns in hallways, to oddly placed ramps inside the building unfold the building’s unique architecture. The West wing’s foundation is a bit higher than the original east wing building resulting in ramps midway between the buildings. Some other oddities of the building include a basement, crawl spaces, paint sealed windows, and of course, ‘the stairs that lead to nowhere’.
Along the northeast end of Dwight Bentel Hall lie the four desolate steps. Evacuation maps posted around the building show the stairs in existence but again they lead to a dead end. Ramblings into the floor plans and architectural history did not prove very fruitful in deciphering ‘the stair code’. However, interviewing a few octogenarian veterans of Dwight Bentel Hall solved the mystery. Professor Clyde Lawrence tells, “The steps led to a narrow exterior door to a small ‘Women Faculty’ restroom. There was also an interior door which is now a door to a custodian's closet, I believe. All of that was eliminated when the building was remodeled around 1990. I remember the door as one of period design with a glass panel on which was lettered ‘Women Faculty’.” He adds, “I think the access to the outside for both rest rooms was for use by the other buildings which, at one time, surrounded Tower Hall.” The information shared by Professor Clyde proved to be the missing link and solved the mystery about the former usage of the stairs.
The stairs fill the spectators with awe, curiosity and confusion but at the same time they are successful in luring them to sit and relax with them. The enigma of the stairs has seemed to accelerate the imagination of the San Jose State ‘think-tanks’, as the versions provided by the champions of the stairs kindle the hope of addition of numerous fiction-writing medals to the San Jose State University’s pool of awards. From a duct to a labyrinth, from a library to a secret discotheque, students and teachers have fantastic notions about the stairs. Kyle Szymanski, Journalism Graduate student says, "It’s a dungeon. Instructors took the students when they got an F in their papers or made them mad. As time passed, to keep it a secret they closed it completely." The psychoanalytical approach of psychology might explain Kyle’s statement to be a fear of punishments. However, Vanessa Salvaleon, Broadcast Journalism Junior (Video #1) thinks likewise. She says, “The stairway was used for some kind of punishment may be for students back in the days because it was created in 1911 and it was normal back then to punish students for doing something wrong. ”. Monir Monfared, an Advertising Junior assigns an important task and meaning to it. She opines, “It was a spot for speech, something like a dais. Later it started to be a good hang around spot.”
Eleanor Lovinfosse, English Senior (Video #2) says, “It looks like they were doing some remodeling inside and for some reason decided that the entrance was no longer needed perhaps because of the other two and they sealed up the wall and instead of removing the stairs may be they kept them either for their historical value or the symmetry of the building or it was too difficult to remove them.” It seems she did some serious thinking while sipping warm coffee and reading her books during her time with the stairs.
Nick Burggraff, an Advertising Senior (Video #3) wanted to sound authentic so he did his research and took rounds of the Dwight Bentel Hall and the stairs and came us with a buyable idea. He says, “The reason those stairs are here is because there used to be a door here and so these stairs went into the door. This has been walled-off, this is now a bathroom in here. So instead of having stairs leading into a bathroom from the outside they just chose to have one entrance to the inside so people can come in and out of on entrance.” His version sounds really plausible and is in fact very close to the truth. However, Nathaniel Browning, a Sociology Senior seems to be the best bet in the Booker’s fray, he says, “I think its quite obvious that they made alcohol back here in the prohibition. Moonshine was a very popular thing, had to be made somewhere, only makes sense that’s behind this staircase.” A historical approach was added by Lindsay Wong, a General Education undergraduate student who said, “It was a secret passage during the war times.” Students had a nice time dabbling into their favorite task which happens to be their forte too, that is making stories, thanks to the stairs which prove to be food for the thought. The stairs incite equal interest from teachers too as Professor Matt Cabot from the Public Relations Department (Video #5) declares his version of the story. He says, “I think it was made by Sarah Winchester. This is our version of the Winchester Mystery House, ‘stairs that lead to a concrete wall’.” The creative tally for
The saga doesn’t end there; the quirkiness of Dwight Bentel Hall is not confined to the exteriors of the building. As Professor Mack Lundstrom puts it, “This building is quite interesting.” He narrates a quite engaging incident, “There are so many squirrels, these squirrels used to hole up the basement and even reach the false ceilings; it’s all wired, we had squirrels dying in them and had all sorts of problems.” Squirrels weren’t the only critters at the building, as Bob Rucker, Radio and Television Journalism coordinator, explained how in the early 90’s, the ceilings came alive with pitter-patter of a huge rodent problem. Rucker recounted when the offices in Dwight Bentel Hall had different ceilings and as he would be grading papers, he would hear stammering mark legs of the little creatures. In addition, he mentioned the building had a bee infestation in some of the labs and several other insect issues. However, one moment stood out for Rucker when the residents from the surrounding halfway houses around campus who would stroll onto campus once entered and sat inside classrooms. Several people showed up in Rucker’s classroom meetings ultimately startling him.
Inconsequentialities of anything mundane are nobody’s catch; however these trifles can be someone’s escapade into a fantasy land. A non-noticeable rudimentary structure can have an enormous history behind it but what adds value to it is sometimes the ignorant one who falls in love with it just because it provides her the felicity, ecstasy and enlightenment. What Bodhi-Tree meant for Lord Buddha becomes a much relevant question now. With such a rich historical heritage, being a Dwight Bentel Hall dweller becomes an honor.
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Photographs by Dan Lu
Videos by Kriti Ashok
Special thanks to SJSU / M.L.K.Library 5th floor Special Collections, Daniel No, Professors Clyde Lawrence, Bob Rucker, Matt Cabot, Mack Lundstrom, Richard Craig, and all the students for providing information.
Below are videos to interviews conducted with professors and students regarding the "stairs to nowhere" at Dwight Bentel Hall:
Video #1: Vanessa Salvaleon, Broadcast Journalism Junior
Video #2: Eleanor Lovinfosse, English Senior
Video #3: Nathaniel Browning, Sociology Senior
Video #4: Nick Burggraff, Advertising Senior
Video #5: Professor Matt Cabot
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