The Hoover Tower was completed in 1941 to celebrate Stanford University's 50th anniversary. Measuring 285 feet, the tower has been a landmark for students, alumni and the local community for seven decades.

From the observation platform located on the fourteenth story of the tower, visitors can see the entire campus as well as sights around the San Francisco Bay Area. At the top of the tower, there is a carillon of 48 bells cast in Tournai, Belgium, a gift of the Belgian-American Education Foundation. The largest bell is inscribed, "For Peace Alone Do I Ring."

The lobby of the tower houses the Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover exhibits, which feature memorabilia from the careers and lives of the thirty-first U.S. president and his wife, both of whom were Stanford alumni.