The majority of buildings at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) are named after white and male military members.
The school has not announced plans to build more buildings or rename existing ones, Capital Gazette reported.
Most of the buildings are named after men who led in some capacity at or attended USNA.
Members of USNA’s Board of Visitors have called for the renaming of Maury Hall and Buchanan House, citing the two’s histories with the Confederacy.
Maury Hall was named in 1915 after Matthew Fontaine Maury. Buchanan House was named in 1976, after the school’s first superintendent, Franklin Buchanan. Both had served in the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Of USNA’s buildings, most are named after white men, according to Capital Gazette. Of 38 buildings looked into by Capital, 22 were named after 1960, seven of which were named after 2000.
Only one, Hopper Hall, was named after a woman, computer programing pioneer Rear Adm. Grace Brewster Murray Hopper. The building – opened in 2020 – was the first building at any of the three military academies to be named after a woman.
USNA’s Wesley Brown Field House was named in 2008 after the first Black academy graduate, Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown. It is the only one of the 38 named after a Black man.
