List of Harvard dormitories
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of dormitories at Harvard College. Only First-Years live in the dormitories. Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors live in the House system.
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[edit] Canaday Hall
Canaday Hall is one of the newest buildings in Harvard Yard. Built in 1974, it is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. When seen from above, the complex of buildings comprising Canaday Hall resemble the shape of a question mark.
Due to its pre-fabricated look, 1970's-era institutional cinderblock construction, and noisy location between Memorial Church, Memorial Hall and an active firehouse, Canaday Hall is often considered one of the least desirable of Harvard's freshman dormitories. It has received numerous derogatory nicknames, notably "The Projects."
Canaday's architecture can be traced back to its period of construction, which immediately followed the student takeover of University Hall in 1971. Fearing further student unrest, College administrators had the various portions of Canaday fireproofed and separated from each other to foil student organizing. Unlike other Harvard freshman dormitories, notably Wigglesworth Hall, students must go outside to access any portion of the building other than their own. This includes the Common Room, making laundry and garbage disposal an inconvienence in winter months.
On the other hand, residents of Canaday Hall enjoy the shortest average distance to some of the most important buildings on the Harvard campus, including the Science Center, the aforementioned Memorial Hall, Emerson Hall, Sever Hall, Robinson Hall, the Law School Library, and Widener Library, among others.
Past residents include Paul Wylie, Mira Sorvino, Sean Gullette, and Charles Lane. (Source: Dorm History Search at http://hcs.harvard.edu/~dorms/)
[edit] Grays Hall
Grays Hall opened in Harvard Yard in 1863 and became Harvard College's first building with water taps in the basement. Residents of other buildings in Harvard Yard had to haul water from pumps in the Yard.
Grays Hall is currently used as a dormitory housing freshmen. Its rooms are so spacious that the building and its reputation for housing the sons and daughters of the rich, famous, and royal has earned it the nickname "Harvard Hilton."
Past residents include Norman Mailer, Harpoon Brewery co-founder Daniel Kenary, Natalie Portman, Frank Rich, Jeff Bingaman, Mo Rocca, Michael Weishan, and John Weidman.
[edit] Hollis Hall
Hollis Hall, built in 1763, is one of the oldest buildings at Harvard College. It is located in Harvard Yard and faces the statue of John Harvard across the Old Yard.
The building was erected at the expenses of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1763. It was named in honor of Thomas Hollis of London, a merchant, and other members of the same family, who were generous benefactors of Harvard College from 1719 to 1804.
Hollis Hall was used as barracks by Colonial troops in 1775-76. Occupants of Hollis Hall have included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, Charles Francis Adams, Henry David Thoreau, George Santayana, John Updike, Charles Sumner, William Weld, Edward Everett, Joseph P. Kennedy, Horatio Alger, Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr..
The Hall has two entryways: Hollis North and Hollis South. Each entryway has 4 floors, with 4 doubles on each floor. Each entryway can therefore house up to 32 students.
Hollis Hall is currently used to house freshmen at the College.
[edit] Holworthy Hall
Holworthy was founded in 1812 and was named after Sir Matthew Holworthy, a wealthy merchant, who made what was at the time the largest donation to Harvard in the university's history. Holworthy is a first-year dormitory at Harvard College and is located in Harvard Yard. Housing three entryways, it is the closest dorm to the Science Center. It is the second closest dormitory to Memorial Hall, which houses the freshman dining hall, Annenberg.
Holworthy has the only floorplan of its kind among Harvard dormitories. On each floor of an entryway, there are two suites connected by a ten foot-long hallway and a shared bathroom. Each suite features a large common room, with two double bedrooms. While some residents choose to close the hallway doors, many leave the bathroom hallway open, creating an eight person "megasuite," unmatched by other freshman housing. This provides a built-in social community for the residents within each suites. Each bathroom contains two sinks, two toilets, two showers, and no windows.
Past occupants have included Cornel West, Conan O'Brian and Horatio Alger.
[edit] Pennypacker Hall
Pennypacker Hall is part of a group of dormitories outside Harvard Yard called the Union Dormitories. Built in 1956, it is the most recent dormitory and was named after Henry Pennypacker, a former president of the admissions committee. Originally used as temporary housing, it is now a permanent space for freshmen.
WHRB (95.3FM Cambridge), the campus radio station run exclusively by Harvard students, is given space in the basement of Pennypacker Hall,
Past residents include: Hendrik Hertzberg, Nicholas Kristof, and Chris Wallace.
[edit] Weld Hall
Weld Hall at Harvard College, built in 1870, was the second of two important additions to the Harvard campus designed by the architectural firm Ware & Van Brunt (the first being Memorial Hall).
The building was a gift of William Fletcher Weld in memory of his brother Stephen Minot Weld. Weld Hall represented a new trend toward picturesque silhouettes that became important to American domestic architecture of the later nineteenth century, as can be seen in the Queen Anne style which was popular during the same period.
Past residents include John F. Kennedy, Michael Kinsley, Michael Crichton, Daniel Ellsberg, Christopher Durang, Douglas Feith, Neil H. McElroy, Ben Bernanke and Douglas Kenney.
[edit] Wigglesworth Hall
Wigglesworth Hall is the second-largest of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. It is located along the southern edge of Harvard Yard, between Widener Library and Boylston Hall to the north, and Massachusetts Avenue. It was constructed in 1931, and according to Harvard's website, its location "was part of President Lowell's plan to enclose the Yard from the traffic of Harvard Square." The dorm is actually discontiguous, and consists of three buildings: (from east to west) A-D entries (stairwells), a.k.a. "Big Wigg", E-I entries, and J-K entries, a.k.a. "Wigglet".
Past residents include Bill Gates, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein, John Lithgow, Robert Lowell, Ben Bradlee, Sen. David Vitter, Pat Toomey, Andre Gregory, Mark Danner, Donald Hodel, Naomi Yang, and NPR's Melissa Block.
[edit] Other dormitories
- Greenough Hall — Located just outside Harvard Yard; past residents include Elliott Abrams, Wallace Shawn, William Kristol, Laurence Tribe and, more recently, Kaavya Viswanathan. Greenough is part of a group of dormitories outside the Yard called the Union Dormitories.
- Hurlbut Hall — Located just outside Harvard Yard. Hurlbut is part of a group of dormitories outside the Yard called the Union Dormitories. As one of the few dorms with alternate non-electronic keycard access, it is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population (who cannot use swipecards on Shabbat). Residents of floors 1-2 are known as "Lower Hurlbutians," those of floors 3-4 as "Upper Hurlbutians," after Jonathan Swift's Lilliputians.
- Mower Hall — Located in Harvard Yard; past residents include Al Gore, Tommy Lee Jones, Al Franken, Edward Gorey, Arthur Kopit, Thomas Oliphant, Timothy Crouse and Charles Murray.
- Lionel Hall. Located in Harvard Yard. Past residents include Peter Benchley, Erich Segal, Lou Dobbs, Grover Norquist, and Endicott Peabody.
- Stoughton Hall — Located in Harvard Yard next to Hollis, its twin dorm. The dorm is known for its large rooms, which consist of 32 doubles in 2 entry ways.
- Massachusetts Hall - This is also the location of the Office of the President of Harvard University. For this reason it is rumored that freshmen are chosen to live here who are less likely to be disruptive. Massachusetts Hall will cease to house freshmen in 2007.[citation needed]
- Thayer - Residents are known as "Thayerites." Past residents include E. E. Cummings.
- Straus Hall - Residents are known as "Strausians." Past residents include John G. Roberts, Jr. and William S. Burroughs.
- Matthews Hall - Located in Harvard Yard near Massachusetts Hall and Straus, Matthews is a large dorm with both entryways and hallways. Matthews' basement has the offices of FOP, FUP, and has music practice rooms. Past residents include Matt Damon, Robert Rubin, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, William Randolph Hearst, and John Dos Passos.
- Apley Court - Former residents include T. S. Eliot. It is located just outside of Harvard Yard.
[edit] Sources
- Harvard Dorm History Search for past residents
