# Bowdoin College Family Weekend, October 30 to November 1, 2026: four buildings and three low-sun walls to photograph on campus and in Brunswick > Bowdoin College Family Weekend, October 30 to November 1, 2026: four campus walls that line up with the low morning sun, the light day by day as daylight saving time ends, where to stand for the family picture, and three walls on campus and Maine Street in low sun, 6 to 10 degrees up. This is the Markdown form of https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-bowdoin-family-weekend-2026, with the same words as the page. Part of [Family Weekends 2026](https://hengedays.com/articles/family-weekends-2026), school 20 of 26. Previous school: [Middlebury College](https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-middlebury-family-weekend-2026). Next school: [Swarthmore College](https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-swarthmore-family-weekend-2026). *Howell House on Maine Street in Henge Days, entry 1 in the list and the family photo spot. Pink marks the east-southeast wall that the low morning sun lines up with on all three days of Family Weekend. North is up.* For October 30 to November 1, 2026. Family Weekend at Bowdoin College runs from Friday, October 30, to Sunday, November 1, 2026. This guide lists four walls on the campus that the low morning sun lands on square that weekend. It adds a spot for the family picture and three more walls on campus and Maine Street that get the sun 6 to 10 degrees up. Post your pictures with #HengeDays. In this article - [The weekend's schedule and the light](#the-weekend-s-schedule-and-the-light) - [Part 1: the Bowdoin College campus](#part-1-the-bowdoin-college-campus) - [Part 2: downtown Brunswick](#part-2-downtown-brunswick) - [Low sun](#low-sun) - [How the list was made](#how-the-list-was-made) - [How to read each entry](#how-to-read-each-entry) Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 AM on Sunday, November 1. Every time in this guide is US Eastern: Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Friday and Saturday, and Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Sunday, an hour earlier by the clock. For a level horizon, the sun rises at 7:13 AM EDT on Friday and 6:16 AM EST on Sunday, at about 109 degrees. It sets at 5:32 PM EDT on Friday and 4:30 PM EST on Sunday, at about 251 degrees. ### The weekend's schedule and the light In web search results on October 17, Bowdoin's 2026-2027 academic calendar listed Family Weekend from Friday, October 30, to Sunday, November 1. It put the Sarah and James Bowdoin Day ceremony on Friday, October 30. One version of the calendar marks the fall 2026 dates as proposed. The searches found no 2026 times, and the Family Weekend page still showed the 2025 program. Bowdoin's own pages could not be opened from where this guide was written, so the list below comes from those search summaries. In 2025 the ceremony was held in Pickard Theater, in Memorial Hall. Check the [Family Weekend page](https://www.bowdoin.edu/familyweekend) and the Bowdoin Family Weekend app before you plan the weekend. - Friday, October 30: sunrise at 7:13 AM EDT. Hubbard Hall (entry 4) meets the sun at the horizon at 7:18 AM EDT. Howell House (entry 1) lines up at 7:35 AM EDT and Kanbar Hall (entry 2) at 7:41 AM EDT. The Sarah and James Bowdoin Day ceremony is on this day, at a time the search did not find. In the afternoon the Wish Theater pavilion of Memorial Hall gets the sun 9.5 degrees up at 4:30 PM EDT (see Low sun). Sunset is at 5:32 PM EDT. - Saturday, October 31: sunrise at 7:14 AM EDT. Hubbard Hall at 7:17 AM EDT, Howell House at 7:34 AM EDT, Kanbar Hall at 7:40 AM EDT and the Pine Street Apartments (entry 3) at 7:53 AM EDT. Howell House is the family photo spot below. In the afternoon, Memorial Hall's Wish Theater pavilion has the low sun at 4:31 PM EDT. Sunset is at 5:31 PM EDT. - Sunday, November 1: clocks go back one hour at 2:00 AM. Sunrise is at 6:16 AM EST. Howell House lines up at 6:33 AM EST, Kanbar Hall at 6:38 AM EST and the Pine Street Apartments at 6:51 AM EST. Hubbard Hall gets no head-on sun on Sunday. In the afternoon, the Wish Theater pavilion has the low sun at 3:32 PM EST. Sunset is at 4:30 PM EST, an hour earlier by the clock than on Saturday. ### Part 1: the Bowdoin College campus The east walls of the Chapel, Maine Hall and Appleton Hall on the Quad face 109 degrees. They meet the sun at the horizon on Friday only, and a building stands in front of each at that moment. Massachusetts Hall, Winthrop Hall and the Museum of Art in the Walker Art Building have no wall the sun lines up with this weekend. The four walls below face 110 to 116 degrees and pass the check for other buildings. All four are morning walls. Pines and other trees around the campus can hide a sun that is only a degree or two up, and the check does not include them. #### 1 Howell House Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine Wall east-southeast, facing 112° Sun The low morning sun lines up with this wall on Oct 30 to Nov 1. Best: Sunday, November 1 at 6:33 AM EST, 2.3° above the horizon. Leaves The Maine Forest Service's first weekly report, on September 9, said coastal and southern Maine usually reach peak color in mid- to late October ([Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/4292e1b)). By the weekend many trees in Brunswick can be past peak, and fewer leaves in the way help a low sun reach the walls. Where to stand The wall is the front of the house, 25 m in four sections, facing Maine Street across a lawn. Stand on the Maine Street sidewalk in front of the house, east-southeast of the wall, with the sun behind you. Stay off the lawn and the house's own walks, and stay out of the street. The sun lines up with the wall at 7:35 AM EDT on Friday, 7:34 AM EDT on Saturday and 6:33 AM EST on Sunday, 3.1, 2.7 and 2.3 degrees up. These are golden days: at the head-on moment the sun is 2 to 6 degrees up. Winthrop Hall, toward the sun, has no height in OpenStreetMap. The check assumed one and found its roofline at 1.5 degrees, below the sun on all three days. The sun reaches 14 m of the 25 m front at that moment. Trees along Maine Street and on the campus across it can hide a sun this low. Friday, with the highest sun, has the best chance. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (2.3° up) in its direction. One of Bowdoin's eight college houses, at 228 Maine Street, on the west side of the street across from the campus. It was the house of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, and the College named it in 2000 for Roger Howell Jr., Class of 1958, Bowdoin's tenth president ([Bowdoin College archives](https://archivesspace.bowdoin.edu/repositories/2/top_containers/2907)). It is a student residence, so photograph it from the sidewalk. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 112°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Oct 24 to Sat, Nov 7, 2026**15 mornings · best Sat, Nov 7 **6:25 AM EST** Golden sunrise, sun 0° up ESE 112° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/43.91000,-69.96412?q=Howell+House%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F770655211&facade=13&d=2026-10-24) Family photo spot. Stand the family on the Maine Street sidewalk in front of Howell House, with the lit front behind them across the lawn. The photographer stands across Maine Street on the campus-side sidewalk, east-southeast of them, with the sun low behind. Cross at a crosswalk. That lights faces and the house in the same warm light. Stay off the house's lawn and out of the street. Go on Friday at 7:35 AM EDT, when the sun is highest, or on Saturday at 7:34 AM EDT or Sunday at 6:33 AM EST. Post it with #HengeDays. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. #### 2 Kanbar Hall Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine Wall east-southeast, facing 113° Sun The low morning sun lines up with this wall on Oct 30 to Nov 1. Best: Sunday, November 1 at 6:38 AM EST, 3.2° above the horizon. Leaves The Maine Forest Service's first weekly report, on September 9, said coastal and southern Maine usually reach peak color in mid- to late October ([Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/4292e1b)). Pines keep their needles, so trees of that kind block the low sun all year. Where to stand The wall is the east end of the building's south wing, 16 m, facing a campus walk. Stand on that walk, east-southeast of the wall, with the sun behind you. The sun lines up with the wall at 7:41 AM EDT on Friday, 7:40 AM EDT on Saturday and 6:38 AM EST on Sunday, 4.1, 3.6 and 3.2 degrees up. These are golden days: at the head-on moment the sun is 2 to 6 degrees up. A building toward the sun has no height in OpenStreetMap. The check assumed one and found its roofline at 0.9 degrees, below the sun on all three days, and the sun reaches the whole wall. The map shows a green patch southeast of the walk. If it holds trees, they can hide the sun at that moment. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (3.2° up) in its direction. A college building at 12 Bath Road, on the east side of the campus, south of Bath Road and about 250 m east of the Quad. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 113°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Mon, Oct 26 to Mon, Nov 9, 2026**15 mornings · best Mon, Nov 9 **6:29 AM EST** Golden sunrise, sun 0° up ESE 113° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/43.90981,-69.95977?q=Kanbar+Hall%2C+12+Bath+Road%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F769631509&facade=4&d=2026-10-26) #### 3 Pine Street Apartments Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine Wall east-southeast, facing 116° Sun The low morning sun lines up with this wall on Oct 31 to Nov 1. Best: Sunday, November 1 at 6:51 AM EST, 5.3° above the horizon. Leaves The Maine Forest Service's first weekly report, on September 9, said coastal and southern Maine usually reach peak color in mid- to late October ([Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/4292e1b)). The map shows woods north of the building, behind the photographer's back at this wall. Where to stand The lit wall is the building's east end, facing a campus walk, with the short east-facing steps along its length, 25 m in all. Stand on the walk east-southeast of the end wall, with the sun behind you. Stay off the lawns by the doors and out of Pine Street. The sun lines up with the wall at 7:53 AM EDT on Saturday and 6:51 AM EST on Sunday, 5.7 and 5.3 degrees up. These are golden days: at the head-on moment the sun is 2 to 6 degrees up. On Friday at 7:54 AM EDT it is 6.1 degrees up, a little above golden light. Nothing in the outlines stands in the way, and the sun reaches 19 m of the 25 m. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. Clear view Clear. No building in the map data rises above the sun (5.3° up) in its direction. Bowdoin student apartments at 1 Pine Street, listed on the College's [campus map](https://www.bowdoin.edu/about/campus-location/maps/campus-map.pdf). The long, stepped building stands north of Pine Street, east of Whittier Field. It is a student residence, so photograph it from the campus walk. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 116°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Sat, Oct 31 to Mon, Nov 16, 2026**17 mornings · best Mon, Nov 16 **6:36 AM EST** Golden sunrise, sun 0° up ESE 116° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/43.90847,-69.95365?q=Pine+Street+Apartments%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F1113482788&facade=11&d=2026-10-31) #### 4 Hubbard Hall Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine Wall east-southeast, facing 110° Sun The rising sun lines up with this wall on Oct 30 to 31. Best: Saturday, October 31 at 7:17 AM EDT, 0.2° above the horizon. Leaves The Maine Forest Service's first weekly report, on September 9, said coastal and southern Maine usually reach peak color in mid- to late October ([Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/4292e1b)). Where to stand The wall is the east side of the stem of the T and the east end of its long wing, 58 m in all, facing the campus walks east of the hall. Stand on those walks, east-southeast of the wall, with the sun behind you. The sun meets the wall at the horizon at 7:18 AM EDT on Friday and 7:17 AM EDT on Saturday, 0.6 and 0.2 degrees up. Sunday has no head-on sun. A building at 10 Harpswell Place, toward the sun, has no height in OpenStreetMap. With the height the check assumed, its roofline is at 1.1 degrees, above the sun on both days. That estimate is the only thing in the outlines in the way. If the building is lower than assumed, the sun reaches the wall. Trees on the campus can hide a sun this low as well, so treat this entry as a chance. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. Clear view Blocked by Building at 10 Harpswell Place, which rises 1.1° toward the sun (height estimated); the sun is 0.2° up. A college building shaped like a T, with rounded ends on its long wing, on the south side of the Quad, near the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. OpenStreetMap gives its address as 9 South Campus Drive. *The building page in Henge Days. The highlighted walls face 110°, toward the sunrise on the days in the row below; every wall carries its bearing.* - **Wed, Oct 28 to Sat, Oct 31, 2026**4 mornings · best Sat, Oct 31 **7:17 AM EDT** Henge sunrise, sun on the horizon ESE 110° wall Its row in the Henge days list, with the time of the head-on moment on the best day. Save keeps that day in your planner, which can send it to your calendar app. Saving asks you to sign in with an email link; there is no password. *The year for every wall of the building. Each row is a wall; the colored runs are its henge, golden and low-sun days.* [Open this wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/at/43.90747,-69.96325?q=Hubbard+Hall%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F1118185484&facade=10&d=2026-10-28) ### Part 2: downtown Brunswick Maine Street runs north from the campus to the Androscoggin River, about 1.5 km. First Parish Church stands at the campus corner, where Bath Road meets Maine Street. To the north are the Town Mall green, the Pejepscot History Center on Park Row, the Curtis Memorial Library on Pleasant Street and the Brunswick station. At the river end, Fort Andross, an old mill, stands beside the Frank J. Wood Bridge to Topsham. The swinging bridge, a footbridge, crosses the river upstream, off Mill Street. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is on Federal Street, a block east of Maine Street. Between events, downtown is where to walk and eat. No wall downtown passes every check this weekend with a public place to stand, so this part has no entry of its own. Fort Andross, First Parish Church, the Curtis Memorial Library and the station have no wall the sun lines up with on these days. The Stowe House lines up in the evening, but a house at 64 Federal Street stands in front of it at that moment. Two walls that pass the check face private ground. How the list was made names them. On Maine Street, the Riley Insurance Agency wall gets the sun 6 to 10 degrees up in the afternoon. It is in the Low sun section. ### Low sun These walls pass the check for other buildings with the sun 6 to 10 degrees up at the head-on moment. That is higher than golden light, and less likely to be hidden by trees or hills. Each line gives the wall's moment on each day. - [The Wish Theater pavilion of Memorial Hall](https://hengedays.com/at/43.90998,-69.96269?q=Wish+Theater%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F769499584&facade=2&d=2026-10-18), at 4 Bath Road: Memorial Hall, finished in 1882, holds Pickard Theater, and the Wish Theater is a pavilion joined to it by a glass atrium ([Bowdoin College](https://www.bowdoin.edu/theater-dance/resources-and-opportunities/facilities/memorial-hall.html)). Its west-southwest wall, 24 m, gets the sun 6 to 10 degrees up at its moment: 4:30 PM EDT on Friday, 4:31 PM EDT on Saturday and 3:32 PM EST on Sunday, 9.5, 9.1 and 8.7 degrees up. The sun reaches the whole wall. Stand on the campus walks west-southwest of it, with the sun behind you. Mustard House, toward the sun, has no height in OpenStreetMap, and with the assumed height its roofline is at 2.2 degrees. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. - [The college building at 215 Maine Street](https://hengedays.com/at/43.91067,-69.96356?q=215+Maine+Street%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F769631531&facade=1&d=2026-10-14), a long building on the west side of Maine Street between Noble Street and Bath Road, across from First Parish Church and north of Howell House: its east-southeast wall, 27 m, faces Maine Street. It gets the sun 6 to 10 degrees up at its moment: 8:04 AM EDT on Friday, 8:02 AM EDT on Saturday and 7:01 AM EST on Sunday, 7.6, 7.2 and 6.8 degrees up. The sun reaches the whole wall. Stand on the Maine Street sidewalk, east-southeast of the wall, and stay out of the street. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. - [The Riley Insurance Agency](https://hengedays.com/at/43.91515,-69.96467?q=Riley+Insurance+Agency%2C+Maine+Street%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME&b=osm%2Fway%2F1223328044&facade=0&d=2026-10-19), at 139 Maine Street downtown: its west-southwest end, 13 m, faces Maine Street. It gets the sun 6 to 10 degrees up at its moment: 4:28 PM EDT on Friday, 4:29 PM EDT on Saturday and 3:30 PM EST on Sunday, 9.8, 9.3 and 8.9 degrees up. Stand on the Maine Street sidewalk west-southwest of the wall, about 25 m from it, and stay out of the parking area and the street. A building toward the sun has no height in OpenStreetMap. With the assumed height its roofline is at 8.2 degrees, below the sun on all three days. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position for a level horizon, and not checked on the ground. ### How the list was made Henge Days computed every building within 300 to 500 meters of 11 points. Five covered the campus, centered on the Quad, the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Kanbar Hall, Thorne Hall and the athletic fields by Farley Field House. Six covered the town: Maine Street by First Parish Church and the Stowe House, the Town Mall and the station, upper Maine Street and Mill Street, Fort Andross and the Frank J. Wood Bridge, the river walk and the swinging bridge, and Brunswick Landing. It used OpenStreetMap outlines: named buildings with a wall of 8 m or more, and unnamed buildings with a wall of 20 m or more. It kept walls where the sun lines up with the wall within 10 degrees of the horizon on at least one day from Friday, October 30, to Sunday, November 1. It then traced the sun's path from points along each wall against every outline it had fetched, with heights estimated by building type where an outline has none. The map pictures were checked for walls shaded by their own building or a neighbor joined to it. The checks leave four picks, fewer than this package's other guides, and all four are on the campus. Of 56 walls that face this weekend's low sun, most stand behind a neighbor at their moment. The east walls of the Chapel, Maine Hall, Appleton Hall, Hyde Hall, the Visual Arts Center and Cleveland Hall meet the sun at the horizon on Friday only, with a building in front of each. Smith Union meets it at the horizon, but Mills Hall stands well above the sun in front of it. Downtown, Northeast Bank, the Maine State Music Theatre offices, Gulf of Maine Books and most of the Maine Street fronts line up behind taller neighbors. Two walls pass the check and are left out for the access rule. The Stowe Inn, behind the Stowe House on Federal Street, has a clear west-southwest wall in the evening on all three days, but the wall faces the inn's own parking lot. The building at 11 Bowdoin Mill Island in Topsham has a clear wall at sunrise on Sunday and in golden light on Friday and Saturday, but it faces the river bank on the mill's own grounds, with no public place to stand. Other walls are left out for these reasons. The Skolfield-Whittier House on Park Row, a museum of the Pejepscot History Center, has a clear low-sun wall, but OpenStreetMap tags it as a house, and the scout treats that as a home. OneSixtyFive and Keller Williams Realty, near Park Row, have clear low-sun walls and are tagged as houses too. Cleveland House on the campus is tagged as a house. Smith House at 59 Harpswell Road, a small college building, has a clear low-sun wall, but the map does not show whether it is a residence. Bull Moose on Maine Street has a clear low-sun wall, but the map does not show a public place to stand in front of it. The clear wall of Brackett Funeral Home on Federal Street has only 7 m in the sun. Copeland House's clear wall is 8 m long, too short to photograph. Hills and trees are not part of that check, and the times assume a level horizon. The campus has many tall pines, and street trees line Maine Street. Either can hide a sun that is only a degree or two up, so a wall can stay in shade at its moment. The golden walls meet the sun 2.3 to 5.7 degrees up. Most neighboring buildings carry no height in OpenStreetMap. The check assumed a height for each by its type, and each entry says so. Every date and time comes from the Henge Days engine for the wall's own bearing, in US Eastern time. ### How to read each entry Each entry shows the building as Henge Days shows it. The map marks the building's outline from OpenStreetMap, gives every wall its compass bearing, and highlights the wall that lines up with the sun. Below it are the wall's row from the building's Henge days list, with a Save button that keeps the best day in your planner, and a year of head-on days for every wall. The Clear view line is the result of the check for other buildings on the best day. Any building has a page like the ones above, your student's hall included. Whatever you shoot, post it with #HengeDays: [Look up a building](https://hengedays.com/) [Open your planner](https://hengedays.com/planner) ### Sources - [Bowdoin College: Family Weekend](https://www.bowdoin.edu/familyweekend) - [Bowdoin College: Academic Calendar 2026-2027](https://www.bowdoin.edu/academic-affairs/calendar/academic-calendar-26-27.html) - [Bowdoin College: Sarah and James Bowdoin Day program, 2025](https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/files/sjb-day-program-2025_printed.pdf) - [Bowdoin College Theater and Dance: Memorial Hall](https://www.bowdoin.edu/theater-dance/resources-and-opportunities/facilities/memorial-hall.html) - [Bowdoin College archives: Howell House records](https://archivesspace.bowdoin.edu/repositories/2/top_containers/2907) - [Bowdoin College: campus map](https://www.bowdoin.edu/about/campus-location/maps/campus-map.pdf) - [Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry: Maine Foliage Weekly Report, September 9, 2026](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/4292e1b) - [Building outlines: OpenStreetMap contributors](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) ### The newsletter Henge Days also has a newsletter. It covers what each release of the site adds and how to use it, and the buildings the #HengeDays community photographs in head-on light. [Read it on Substack](https://hengedays.substack.com/). The address goes to Substack, which sends the email and asks you to confirm. Henge Days does not keep it. --- Every date and time on Henge Days is computed from a building outline in OpenStreetMap and the position of the sun. Nobody has checked it on the ground. Hills, trees and other buildings can block a low sun. Treat each date as a plan to confirm before you travel. See https://hengedays.com/terms.md. Henge Days is free to use; sign in only to save days to a planner. Contact: hello@hengedays.com.