Barrington Hall, Student residential building in Berkeley, United States.
Barrington Hall is a large student residential building in Berkeley located at 2315 Dwight Way with two separate street entrances. It ranks among the city's largest dormitory-style facilities and has housed many residents at once.
The name Barrington Hall came from a Sigma Nu fraternity house on Ridge Road, leased by the University Students' Cooperative Association in 1933. When that lease expired in 1935, the co-op bought the building at 2315 Dwight Way, then Berkeley's largest apartment house, and transferred the name to it; it opened that year housing 200 men. The U.S. Navy leased the building from 1943 to 1948 and returned it substantially upgraded.
Residents painted the walls with murals and graffiti from the 1960s through the 1980s, capturing scenes and messages from student life. These artworks reflected how young people used their living space to express themselves.
The U.S. Navy leased the building from 1943 to 1948 and returned it with substantial upgrades, so later residents inherited Navy-era improvements rather than a 1940s apartment conversion. It sits at 2315 Dwight Way, two blocks from People's Park. The Berkeley Student Cooperative regained control in April 2025, and a $6 million sale offer accepted in late 2025 fell through during escrow.
Before a 1984 legal arbitration with neighbours, Barrington Hall served as a launch pad for Bay Area punk, with bands playing often. The house band at several wine dinners was the Lemmings, whose song "I'm on Sound" described the Barrington experience and carried the chorus of the Onghh Yaangh tenet: "Those who say don't know. Those who know don't say." The song appeared on their first record, whose cover art by Barry Spencer was reproduced as one of the murals on the Hall's walls.
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