Quadrangle (Harvard)
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The Quadrangle at Harvard University, formerly called the Radcliffe Quadrangle or the Harvard Annex dorms, is part of Harvard's undergraduate campus, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Generally just called the Quad, it is a traditional college quad except that it is not located in, or even contiguous with, the heart of campus. It should not be confused with Radcliffe Yard or with Harvard Yard — the latter of which is the heart of Harvard's campus.
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[edit] Geography
The term "the Quad" can refer to the rectangular green field bounded by Cabot House and Pforzheimer House, or it can refer to the entire surrounding section of campus. In this larger sense, its borders are Garden St. to the west, Linnaean St. to the north, Walker St. to the east, and Shepard St. to the south. This consists of the Quad green itself as well as Hilles Library and all of Pforzheimer House, Cabot House, and Currier House, including the Cabot Masters' Residence and the Jordans, even though they are east of Walker St.
Currier and Hilles are separated from the rest of the Quad by a landscaped walk and paved road, a private way used mainly by campus shuttlebuses, that runs north-south through the Quad.
Other adjacent portions of campus, such as the Botanic Gardens, Kittredge, the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (Q-RAC), and the Observatory, are often also grouped as part of the Quad.
[edit] Quadlings
Residents of the three Quad Houses are called Quadlings (after the Quadlings of the Oz books); they tend to be extremely loyal to their Houses and to each other as an outgrowth of their shared relative separation from the main campus.
All nine other Houses (called River Houses for their proximity to the Charles River), all freshman dorms, and almost all undergraduate classrooms and department offices are located in the main part of campus surrounding Harvard Square, which is located about half a mile from the Quad, and which is often called the River by Harvard students. Although not all the houses are equidistant from Harvard Yard, shuttles run to the Quad and the more distant river houses to transport students to class.
Freshmen, who have no control over which upperclass Houses they will be randomly assigned to, often fear being assigned to the Quad (also known as being "quadded"). However, many find a sense of community in the Quad and come to love it.
The benefits of Quad life include fervent spirit and Quad community; better housing arrangements than the River, with larger modern rooms and more common spaces; and the suburban and residential atmosphere of the Quad neighborhood as an area distinct from the academic parts of the Harvard campus. The drawbacks are also often exaggerated, as the Quad is no farther from the Science Center than Mather House or Dunster House, and shuttlebuses run to the Yard throughout the day and to the entire campus at night.
[edit] History and Nomenclature
The Quad began as housing for (female) Radcliffe College students in 1901; male students first moved in around 1970. The Quad became fully coresidential in 1972.
For much of its history, its dorms were called "Annex housing", after the "Harvard Annex", Radcliffe's original name, but at some point it came to be called the "Radcliffe Quadrangle". Around 2002, three years after the dissolution of Radcliffe as an undergraduate institution, the name was changed to The Quadrangle. Signs were placed on all four Quad street corners (as part of the Silken Renovation of 2002) emblazoned only with the Harvard shield and the words "The Quadrangle: Harvard University". Additionally, the name "The Radcliffe Quad" was changed to "The Quadrangle" in Harvard's maps.
For more on Radcliffe's shifting role in the University, see Radcliffe College.
