In August 2020, to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, Benjamin Moore and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced a year-long campaign celebrating women’s heritage. Expanding their relationship, the organizations identified sites rooted in women’s history to help restore them to their former glory as part of the National Trust’s campaign for Where Women Made History.

In 1979, Dovre Hall, a former Sons of Norway meeting hall and neighborhood bar, was reinvented as the Women's Building, the first women-led community center and an incubator for emerging Bay Area women's projects. The building's colorful mural, MAESTRAPEACE, depicts the power and contributions of women throughout history and the world. Today, The Women's Building is a women-led community space that advocates self-determination, gender equality, and social justice, providing services and advocacy for the well-being of women and girls.

With the help of Benjamin Moore, this beloved place enhanced the grand staircase that showcases the building's colorful mural as it makes its way from the exterior into the heart of the site. And now you can see the full transformation for yourself below!

At its heart, the National Trust’s campaign for Where Women Made History is a manifestation of the organization’s commitment to tell a fuller and a more truthful American story. Women’s history is American history, and every place has a woman’s story to tell. But far too often those stories are unknown, overlooked, or deliberately obscured. The National Trust is dedicated to saving places, but we acknowledge that it is the women—both past and present—who imbue these places with meaning. It is their accomplishments, theirs struggles, and their victories—ways they changed the world and left it a better place—that makes these places significant and relevant. And it's what drives us to preserve them today to inspire the women leaders of tomorrow.

We thank Benjamin Moore for their ongoing support and for making this transformation a reality.