List of Harvard dormitories

This is a list of dormitories at Harvard College. Only freshmen live in the dormitories. Sophomores, juniors and seniors live in the House system.

Apley Court

Apley Court — Located about a half block from Harvard Yard on the "Gold Coast," Apley was built in 1897 as a private dormitory during a time of great affluence at Harvard. Apley boasts a beautiful marble staircase, hardwood floors, high ceilings and in-suite bathrooms. Rooms in Apley are typically singles, doubles or triples. The Apley Common Room has a comfortable, old-Harvard feel that is reminiscent of many of the upper class houses. It features a full kitchen for cooking. For relaxation there is a ping pong table, along with couches and chairs. The Apley TV room is a more private, quiet room featuring a TV and VCR, along with couches and chairs to seat seven. Apley's beautiful accommodations more than compensate for its short distance from Harvard Yard. Former residents include T. S. Eliot.

Canaday Hall

Canaday Hall

Canaday Hall, completed in 1974, is the newest dormitory in Harvard Yard, historical home of Harvard College freshmen for their first year in residence upon their initial arrival in Cambridge. When seen from above, its seven buildings resemble the shape of a question mark. It is named for Ward M. Canaday, former president and major shareholder of the Willys Corporation, manufacturer of Jeeps during World War II.

Canaday's architecture can be traced back to its period of construction, which immediately followed the student takeover of University Hall in 1969.^[1] Fearing further student unrest, College administrators fireproofed Canaday and reconfigured it around stairwells to foil student organizing. As such, Canaday Hall grew to resemble most of the other dormitories in Harvard's Old Yard, which are also organized around stairwell entryways accessible to no more than six or eight suites, each connected to the rest of the dormitory building only by an exterior walkway.

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, Memorial Hall, Emerson Hall, Sever Hall, and Robinson Hall.

Past residents include Paul Wylie, David Sacks, Ben Mezrich, Mira Sorvino, Sean Gullette, and Charles Lane. ^[2]

Grays Hall

Grays Hall, Harvard Yard.

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.

Known as "The Harvard Hilton"^[3] Grays Hall is currently used as a dormitory housing freshmen and is considered the most luxurious dorm in the Yard.^[4] It boasts spacious common rooms, exposed brick walls and an illustrious history. This dorm has a room that houses high-security freshmen.

Past residents include Norman Mailer, Harpoon Brewery co-founder Daniel Kenary, Natalie Portman, Frank Rich, Jeff Bingaman, Mo Rocca, Michael Weishan, and John Weidman.

Greenough Hall

Greenough Hall — Located just outside Harvard Yard, Greenough is part of a group of dormitories outside the Yard called the Union Dormitories.

Greenough Hall is a four-floor freshman dormitory divided into one large section in the middle and two smaller alcoves on the sides. The middle sections host double and single rooms in the rear of the building and two-room triples in the front of the building, complete with bay windows. On the sides, rooms are either doubles, singles, and triples, or a six-person suite. There are four bathrooms per floor in Greenough: one in each alcove and two in the middle. Greenough features large windows, large walk-in closets in the triples, and hardwood floors. The dormitory has an elevator at the 10 Prescott Street end of the building. (Greenough is so long it has two house numbers: 10 and 12 Prescott Street.)

Past residents of Greenough include Elliott Abrams, Wallace Shawn, Bill Kristol, and Laurence Tribe.

Hollis Hall

Hollis Hall, Harvard Yard. March, 1934. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. (Arthur C. Haskell, photographer)

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.

Hollis is a short walk from classes and Annenberg Dining Hall. Hollis has housed some of Harvard's most esteemed alumni such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and President Charles W. Eliot. Hollis also housed George Washington's troops during the American Revolution. Hollis is one of the smaller dorms and houses freshmen in very spacious, wood paneled, single-room doubles with common bathrooms. Occupants of Hollis Hall have included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Henry David Thoreau, George Santayana, John Updike, Charles Sumner, William Weld, Edward Everett, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Horatio Alger, Jr., Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., and Jim Cramer.

Holworthy Hall

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 suite. Each bathroom contains two sinks, two toilets, and two showers.

Past occupants have included Cornel West, Conan O'Brien, and Horatio Alger, Jr..

Hurlbut Hall

Hurlbut Hall — Another member of the Union dorm cluster built in 1959, Hurlbut has some of the largest rooms in the Yard. Half of the rooms are stand-alone singles, organized in what is commonly called a "pod," around a common area and a bathroom. The other half are six-person suites, with multiple shared bedrooms, a common room, and an in-suite bath. There is a large laundry room and a computer room with vending machines in the basement. Past residents include James Blake, Roger Myerson, Amory Lovins, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and Roger W. Ferguson, Jr..

Lionel Hall

Lionel Hall — Located in Harvard Yard, Mower Hall's twin. Tucked away in a corner of the Old Yard, Lionel, like Mower, is small, homey, and has fantastic rooms. Lionel Hall is a memorial to Lionel deJersey, the only relative of John Harvard to attend Harvard. Also like Mower, Lionel has suites that house three or four freshmen, and all suites have bathrooms. Past residents include Peter Benchley, Erich Segal, Lou Dobbs, Grover Norquist, Kevin Kallaugher and Endicott Peabody.

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall — The oldest surviving building at Harvard and the country’s oldest dormitory, Mass Hall is located next to Johnston Gate at the entrance to the Yard. While the building was designed by two Harvard Presidents, John Leverett and Benjamin Wadsworth, between 1718 and 1720 for the housing of 64 students, the building has since been given various roles – as a refuge for American soldiers during the Siege of Boston, as well as an observatory when Thomas Hollis donated a 24-foot telescope to the university in 1722. Today, it serves as office space for the most significant administrators at Harvard, including the President, as well as home to a handful of lucky freshmen. In addition to a rich history – five founding fathers lived here – Mass Hall offers a prime location and excellent double and single rooms.

Matthews Hall

Matthews Hall — Situated in the heart of Harvard Yard, Matthews boasts large suite common rooms and lovely interiors. All Matthews suites are doubles or triples with shared hallway bathrooms. In the basement, Matthews has a newly-renovated common room. The basement also has a study room with white board, a full kitchen, music practice rooms and a trash room. 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, Mark Penn, and John Dos Passos.

Mower Hall

Mower Hall — Located in Harvard Yard, Lionel Hall's twin. Mower has suites that house three or four freshmen, and all suites have bathrooms. In Mower basement, students will find a full kitchen as well as a common room with a TV and DVD player. There is also a dedicated space for quiet study. Past residents include Al Gore, Tommy Lee Jones, Bob Somerby, Al Franken, Edward Gorey, Arthur Kopit, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Thomas Oliphant, Timothy Crouse and Charles Murray.

Pennypacker Hall

Pennypacker Hall

Pennypacker Hall is part of a group of dormitories outside Harvard Yard called the Union Dormitories. Built in 1927 and acquired by Harvard in 1958, it 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 D. Kristof, Andrew Tobias, and Chris Wallace.

Stoughton Hall

Stoughton Hall

Stoughton Hall — Stoughton was built in 1805 and was the second building to be named Stoughton Hall at Harvard. The original Stoughton Hall was built in 1700 and funded by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, who also presided over the Salem witch trials. Stoughton is situated next to Hollis and, like Hollis, houses freshmen in large single room doubles with common bathrooms. Stoughton is a short walk from the Science Center and Annenberg Dining Hall.

Straus Hall

Straus Hall — Straus was built in 1926 by three brothers in memory of their parents, Isador and Ida Straus, New York department store entrepreneurs (Abraham and Straus), who had died on the Titanic. Straus has four entryways, A to D, and consists of suites of doubles, triples, and quads overlooking Massachusetts Avenue and Harvard Square. Like residences in many other Yard dormitories, all suites in Straus Hall have wood-burning living room fireplaces. Straus residents also enjoy a spacious common room, furnished with the leather chairs, oriental rugs, and mahogany panelling characteristic of the Edwardian Harvard reflected. An excellent meeting space for large groups, the room also boasts its own kitchen, a TV, a DVD/VCR, and seating for over thirty. Past residents include Mark Zuckerberg, William S. Burroughs, David Souter, John Roberts, Phil Bredesen, Tom Ridge, Darren Aronofsky, Soledad O'Brien, Tim Wirth, and Joseph Lelyveld.^[2]

Thayer Hall

Thayer Hall — Thayer was built in 1870 and originally offered housing to students who had trouble affording the ever increasing prices of housing outside the university. Thayer is centrally located and tends to be a social dorm as rooms are situated on long hallways. Freshmen in Thayer share doubles and triples. Thayer residents will also appreciate having elevators on move-in and move-out days, a luxury that few Harvard students share. Rooms are clustered by gender around single-sex bathrooms. Thayer Basement is prime freshman real estate, newly renovated and completely contemporary. In four distinct spaces there is a full kitchen with eat-in bar, a quiet study room with dry erase board, a room with a pool table, and a lounge with a plasma TV and DVD player. Thayer Basement also houses a laundry room. Past residents include E. E. Cummings, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hamzah bin al Hussein of Jordan, Steve Ballmer, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James Agee, Walter Isaacson, Perri Klass, Jonathan Mostow, Bernard Francis Law, Owen Wister, Andy Borowitz and Roy J. Glauber. Also Princess Owada Masako of Japan was in Thayer North in 1981.

Weld Hall

Weld Hall, Harvard Yard. Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

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). Although originally divided into North and South entryways, it is now one continuous building.

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 J. Feith, Neil H. McElroy, Ben Bernanke and Douglas Kenney.

Wigglesworth Hall

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 disconnected, and consists of three buildings: (from east to west) A-D entries (stairwells), E-I entries a.k.a "MidWigg" or "BigWigg", and J-K entries, a.k.a. "Wigglet" or "Little House on the Prairie." Moving between entryways within the same building requires going outdoors or going through the common basement. Interestingly enough, the entire dorm building also tends to vibrate whenever the nearby train passes by.

Past residents include Bill Gates, Sen. Lee E. Rosenthal , Ted Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein, John Lithgow, Robert Lowell, Benjamin C. Bradlee, Sen. David Vitter, Pat Toomey, Andre Gregory, Mark Danner, Donald P. Hodel, Naomi Yang, NPR's Melissa Block, and Jared Diamond.

Sources

• Harvard Dorm History Search for past residents

References

1. ^ 1969 Still a Memory, Harvard Crimson, [1]
2. ^ ^{a b} Dorm History Search, [2]
3. ^ The Unofficial Guide" Harvard Student Agencies. Freshman Dorms.
4. ^ "John F. Kennedy Slept Here; Soon You Will Too". The Harvard Crimson. 27 June 1995. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/6/27/john-f-kennedy-slept-here-soon/. Retrieved 11 February 2011.