Mary Gaston Hall was built in 1977 as part of the third student housing expansion. Like R.K. Johnson Hall, it has several unique features compared with the other women’s halls. In addition to three floors, Gaston has a basement with:
- A large meeting room
- Music practice rooms
- Post office boxes that alleviate the after-chapel rush to the campus post office
In 1984, a cosmetology lab was built in the basement for the cosmetology program. When the program was discontinued in 2011, the lab had a 21-station salon and a classroom. The basement was repurposed for general use in 2013, but a cosmetology salon mirror still hangs as a reminder of its former role.
Gaston was also the first women’s residence hall built with air conditioning. In fact, its construction initiated the installation of air conditioning in the rest of the residence halls from 1977–78.
The hall’s built-in furniture was made on campus with the help of students. It is similar to the furniture that had been installed in most of the other dorms in the early ’70s.
Mary Gaston Jones
Mary Gaston Stollenwerck Jones was born Sept. 6, 1888, at her maternal grandmother’s plantation near Uniontown, Alabama. She lived with her family in Mobile until her father died in 1894. At the request of her grandparents, Mary Gaston and her family returned to live in Uniontown.
Despite her mother’s efforts to raise her as a lady, Mary Gaston was a tomboy, known as “the little hellcat” around town. However, her mother eventually succeeded. As a teenager, Mary Gaston was known as “the belle of Uniontown,” and her popularity brought her many party invitations.
Having accepted Christ at a young age, Mary Gaston taught Sunday school and read her Bible, but she preferred to live for herself — that is, until the Bob Jones Revival went to her town in 1907. Before he arrived, a boyfriend told her at a party, “Just wait until that Bob Jones comes here. He will get you straightened out.” She replied, “He won’t bother me any. You will see.” She attended the revival each night only to sing in the choir, but she was convicted of her sin as she sat under Jones’s preaching and turned back to God.
At that revival not only did Mary Gaston begin pursuing Christ, Bob Jones Sr. also began pursuing Mary Gaston. Jones, who had been widowed the year before, noticed Mary Gaston at one of the choir practices. “To this day I can see Mary Gaston sitting there on the arm of the pulpit chair,” Jones once said. “She had all the refinement that I lacked.” He immediately made contact with her, and they courted long-distance for about a year before they were married on June 17, 1908, in Uniontown.
They made their home in Montgomery where their only child Bob Jones Jr. was born in 1911, but Jones continued full-time evangelistic traveling until he founded Bob Jones College in 1927.
Influence on Bob Jones Sr. and BJU
Whether Mary Gaston stayed at home or traveled with her husband, she supported him in every way she could — too many ways to count. She often gave him much-needed forthright advice to balance out his fervent energy. When Jones suddenly announced to her that he wanted to found a college in 1925, she replied, “Robert, are you crazy? Honey, you don’t know anything about a school. You’re not an educator. You can’t found a school.” He replied with complete faith in God’s ability to help him. Together, his faith and her practicality essentially built BJU.
Mary Gaston worked behind the scenes in many areas, even overseeing building remodels and flower planting on campus. She also impacted BJU students. “Only God knows how many needy students she has helped without anyone else in the family being aware of it,” Jones Jr. wrote of his mother.
Mary Gaston’s 62-year commitment to BJU ended when she died on May 12, 1989, at the age of 100.
