Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives

Lying beneath the manicured Main Quad of campus lies a hidden world: A network of steam tunnels, long shrouded in myth and the scene of much mischief, inspiring generations of student curiosity and exploration.

These steam tunnels were first proposed under President William DeWitt Hyde in the 1880s to switch the heating of the College from individual fireplaces—which posed significant fire hazards—to a central coal-fired system, according to Secretary of Development and College Relations John Cross. While it is unclear exactly when they were completed, by 1901, the Orient reported the steam tunnels were operational.

“Steam-heating apparatus has been installed in all the halls, and last winter the rooms were warm,” an article from April 25, 1901 reads.

This tunnel system ran from the campus heating plant to Maine Hall, behind Winthrop Hall, to Massachusetts Hall, in front of Memorial Hall and about halfway to Searles Science Building.

The second system was installed in the summer of 1922, according to an Orient article detailing the construction. Tunnels for pipes and electric wires were added from the heating plant to Maine Hall, under the Chapel to Appleton Hall and to Hubbard Hall, which was the library at the time. The system also connects to Moulton Union. An Orient article from 2005 states that these tunnels are accessible through the basements of Maine Hall and Massachusetts Hall.

In 1978, then-Power Plant Supervisor John Dewitt told the Orient that there are two types of tunnels at the College: small underground ones that are just large enough for the pipes and “walking” tunnels, which are about six feet high. The walking tunnels connect various buildings on campus.

The tunnels make themselves known in the thawing patterns of snowy paths running from Winthrop Hall to Hyde Hall and from Searles to the Walker Art Building—these paths map directly onto topographical diagrams of the tunnels.

“Tunnels are only used for steam and condensate pipe and, in some cases, wiring. Basically, it is just a small rectangular concrete vault in the ground with pipes in it,” Associate Vice President for Facilities and Capital Projects Jeff Tuttle wrote in an email to the Orient. “Some are big enough to walk through but just barely and not many of them. The space is very limited with the pipe occupying most of the available space.”

While there is a history of students exploring the tunnels, the entrances have officially been sealed off for years.

“Students in the 1970s would occasionally access the tunnels in the lower levels of the dorms and would pop up unexpectedly elsewhere,” Cross wrote in an email to the Orient. “Such ‘adventures’ and pranks were frowned upon by the administration, and the entrances and access points have been sealed from student access for decades now.”

Tuttle emphasized that while facilities workers go into the tunnels to do occasional maintenance, the entrances are always secured, locked and checked regularly. Despite this, generations of Bowdoin students have explored the passages that hide beneath the quad.

In 1931, an Orient reporter wrote an article detailing his own adventure into the tunnels. He and two other students entered the tunnels through the Maine Hall entrance. They traveled to Winthrop Hall, the cellar of Massachusetts Hall and to Searles Science Building before hitting a dead end and turning around.

“Access to the tunnels is not safe, especially so during the heating season,” Tuttle wrote.

A May 2006 Orient article reports that four first-year students snuck into a steam tunnel from a campus construction site and broke into Moulton Union, where they stole “bags of pastries, Lucky Charms and knives.”

Andrea Rodríguez Garrido ’24 visited the tunnels beneath campus last spring.

“I’m not sure if I first heard about the tunnels from my first-year proctor … or if it wasn’t until a haunted Bowdoin tour during my second year. Either way, I was hooked from the start,”  Rodríguez Garrido wrote in an email to the Orient.

Rodríguez Garrido and a friend set out to find the tunnels without much of a plan. After some wandering, they found what looked like an entrance in front of the Walker Art Building and decided to explore.

“The space was just tall enough that you could crouch uncomfortably or crawl with dignity lost,” Rodríguez Garrido wrote. “It was completely dark except for our headlamps…. We made it about fifty feet before we hit a dead end and [my friend] felt a mysterious warm breeze. Covered in dust and soot, we decided to crawl back out.”

Today, the Information Technology (IT) department runs fiber-optic cables through the tunnels. Senior Interactive Developer David Francis, who also leads the Haunted Bowdoin tour, went into the tunnels with IT when a wire shorted out a few years ago.

“I can’t remember if I went down into Adams Hall and came out in Massachusetts [Hall] or the other way around,” Francis said. “You can’t really stand up in the [tunnels], but they’re tall enough that you’re not crawling…. There are lights hanging on the walls and pipes everywhere. Some of those pipes are very hot…. I think [the tunnels] are like four or five feet wide, four or five feet tall. It’s all concrete.”

Persistent but unverified rumors point to the existence of an extensive tunnel network beneath Brunswick and Topsham, allegedly linked to Maine’s portion of the Underground Railroad, parts of which may have been physically underground. The Orient has found no evidence to substantiate these claims or whether those tunnels connect to Bowdoin’s.

“I’m quite sure that you will find that there isn’t a shred of evidence to back up these claims—no maps, eyewitness descriptions, sketches or photographs of these ‘tunnels,’ and yet the stories persist,” Cross wrote.