These hallowed halls

TCNJ’s walls talk, and they tell stories of student life: the enduring friendships, love, loss, and cultural consumption.

Words by Emily W. Dodd ’03

Travers Floor 1 Mural

For close to half a century, student-painted murals in campus residence halls have turned blank cinderblock walls into often colorful snapshots of life and times at the college. While the tradition is most celebrated in the towers of Travers/Wolfe, where almost every inch of wall space in each of the 10-story buildings has been touched by student art, student expression has spilled into other residence halls, too.

We recently took a walk down those halls and stumbled upon movies seen on VHS tapes, a bunch of bananas, and someone’s oddly specific inside joke from 1999. And while trends (and the buildings themselves) may come and go, the tradition holds: leaving your mark on the residence hall walls is a rite of passage that hasn’t gone out of style.

View Tower Murals

CULTURE CLUB
Many of the murals are a tribute to the movies, music, and media that have shaped the generations.

IN LIVING COLOR
Residence halls can start out as places of awkward icebreakers and close quarters. It usually doesn’t take long, though, for those same halls to become second homes filled with lasting memories and tight-knit communities.

MADE YOU LOOK

Sometimes a part of the design was already on the wall.

SOFTER TONES
Painted with care, these quiet memorials mark moments that mattered.

ART CLASS
Celebrations of color, many of the murals transform the walls into simple yet stunning works of art.

BITE-SIZED PIECES

Tasty tributes to the classic snacks that fueled all-nighters, movie marathons, and those conversations that lasted until sunrise.

The halls of Travers/Wolfe are currently a time capsule of the last 25 years. We have preserved them in photos, and you can see the magic here and in a 3D tour: alumni.tcnj.edu/tower-murals/