List of Harvard College freshman dormitories

This is a list of dormitories at Harvard College. Only freshmen live in these dormitories, which are located in and around Harvard Yard. Sophomores, juniors and seniors live in the House system.

Apley Court

Apley Court — Rooms are the most spacious of the freshman dorms. Past notable residents include T. S. Eliot. Formerly part of Adams House, Apley Court is the only Gold Coast era freshman dormitory—constructed in the 1897 as part of a series of luxurious apartments built on Holyoke Street. Accommodations include marble bathrooms, private in-suite showers, multiple walk in closets, and two common rooms in the basement.

Canaday Hall

Canaday Hall

Canaday Hall — Completed in 1974, it is the newest dormitory in Harvard Yard. Seen from the air its seven buildings resemble a question mark. It is named after Ward M. Canaday, former president and major shareholder of the Willys, manufacturer of Jeeps during World War II.

Canaday's construction immediately followed the 1969 student takeover of University Hall;^[1] certain features of its design were meant to confound student organizing. There is a Muslim prayer space in the basement. ^[2]

Residents have included Charles Lane, Eduardo Saverin, Esther Lofgren, Ben Mezrich, David Sacks, Mira Sorvino, and Paul Wylie.^[3]

Grays Hall

Grays Hall

Grays Hall — Opened in 1863, Grays became the 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",^[4] it is considered the most luxurious dormitory in the Yard.^[5]

Past residents include Jeff Bingaman, Michael Cohrs, Jeremy Doner, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Julie Hilden, Norman Mailer, Natalie Portman, Joseph Ransohoff, Frank Rich, Mo Rocca, John Weidman, and Michael Weishan.

Greenough Hall

Greenough Hall — Located just outside the confines of Harvard Yard, Greenough is part of a group of dormitories outside the Yard called the "Union Dormitories". Past notable residents include Elliott Abrams, Bill Kristol, Wallace Shawn, and Laurence Tribe.

Hollis Hall

Hollis Hall in 1934

Hollis Hall in 2007

Hollis Hall — Built in 1763, Hollis is one of the oldest buildings at Harvard, and housed George Washington's troops during the American Revolution. Past residents include Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Horatio Alger, Jr., Jim Cramer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Everett, Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Wendell Phillips, Henry David Thoreau, George Santayana, Charles Sumner, John Updike, and William Weld.

Holworthy Hall

Holworthy Hall

Holworthy Hall — Holworthy was built 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 its history. Past residents include Horatio Alger, Jr., David Halberstam, Christian Herter, Conan O'Brien, Sumner Redstone, Henry Hobson Richardson, Noah Welch, Cornel West, and Jeff Zucker.

Hurlbut Hall

Hurlbut Hall — Another "Union" dormitory. Past notable residents include James Blake, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Amory Lovins, Roger Myerson, and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

Lionel Hall

Lionel Hall — Lionel (built 1925)^[6]:77 was given by Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell as a memorial to Lionel de Jersey Harvard, the first relative of John Harvard to attend Harvard, killed in World War . Past residents include Peter Benchley, Lou Dobbs, Kevin Kallaugher, Grover Norquist, Endicott Peabody, and Erich Segal.

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall — The oldest surviving building at Harvard and the country’s oldest dormitory, Massachusetts Hall is located next to Johnston Gate. Designed by two Harvard Presidents, John Leverett and Benjamin Wadsworth, between 1718 and 1720 for the housing of sixty-four students, the building served various functions over the years, including a refuge for American soldiers during the Siege of Boston, and an observatory after Thomas Hollis' donation of a twenty-four-foot telescope in 1722. Today, it houses the offices of Harvard's President, with a handful of freshmen living on the uppermost floor.

Five of the United States' Founding Fathers lived here. Other residents have included Zabdiel Adams, John Harbison, Alan Jay Lerner, John Redcliffe-Maud, Elliot Richardson, Jared Sparks, Jones Very, and Edward Wigglesworth.

Matthews Hall

Matthews Hall — Past notable residents include Philip Warren Anderson, Matt Birk, Matt Damon, John Dos Passos, Maura Healey, Barney Frank, William Randolph Hearst, Mark Penn, Daniel Quillen, Robert Rubin, Chuck Schumer, Lloyd Shapley, and Maurice Wertheim.

Mower Hall

Mower Hall — Past residents include Timothy Crouse, Al Franken, Al Gore, Edward Gorey, Tommy Lee Jones, Arthur Kopit, Charles Murray, Thomas Oliphant, and Bob Somerby.

Pennypacker Hall

Pennypacker Hall

Pennypacker Hall — Part of the Union Dormitories, Pennypacker is named for Henry Pennypacker, a former president of Harvard's admissions committee. The studios of radio station WHRB (95.3 FM) are in the basement.

Past residents include Hendrik Hertzberg, Nicholas Kristof, Peter Sagal, Andrew Tobias, Chris Wallace, and Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

Stoughton Hall

Stoughton Hall

Stoughton Hall — Stoughton (1805) and is Harvard's second building to be named Stoughton Hall. The original Stoughton Hall was built in 1700 and funded by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, who also presided over the Salem witch trials. Past residents include Trip Hawkins, Jeremy Lin, Eric Maskin, Mehmet Oz, and Sydney Schanberg.

Straus Hall

Straus Hall

Straus Hall — Straus was built in 1926 by three brothers in memory of their parents, Isidor and Ida Straus, New York department store entrepreneurs Abraham & Straus, who had died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Notable residents include Darren Aronofsky, Phil Bredesen, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Lelyveld, Soledad O'Brien, Tom Ridge, John Roberts, David Souter, Caspar Weinberger, Tim Wirth, and Mark Zuckerberg.^[3]

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. Past notable residents include James Agee, Conrad Aiken, Steve Ballmer, Andy Borowitz, Hamzah bin al Hussein, E. E. Cummings, Roy J. Glauber, Walter Isaacson, Perri Klass, Bernard Francis Law, Crown Princess Masako, Jonathan Mostow, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Edward Seaga, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, James Tobin, and Owen Wister.

Weld Hall

Weld Hall

Weld Hall — Built in 1870, Weld was the second of two important additions to the Harvard campus designed by Ware & Van Brunt (the first being Memorial Hall).

It was a gift of William Fletcher Weld, in memory of his brother Stephen Minot Weld, and represented a new trend toward picturesque silhouettes that became important in 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 Robert Bacon, Ben Bernanke, Michael Crichton, Christopher Durang, Daniel Ellsberg, Douglas J. Feith, Fred Grandy, Lionel de Jersey Harvard, Rashida Jones, Ryan Jones, John F. Kennedy, Douglas Kenney, Michael Kinsley, Neil H. McElroy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Patrick Harlan and Scott Weinger.

Wigglesworth Hall

Wigglesworth Hall

Wigglesworth Hall — The second largest of the freshman dormitories, and actually three buildings, Wigglesworth is located along the southern edge of the Yard, between Widener Library and Boylston Hall to the north, and Massachusetts Avenue to the south. It was constructed in 1931 as "part of President Lowell's plan to enclose the Yard from the traffic of Harvard Square."

Past residents include Leonard Bernstein, Melissa Block, Benjamin C. Bradlee, Mark Danner, Jared Diamond, Bill Gates, Andre Gregory, Donald P. Hodel, Ted Kennedy, Aga Khan IV, John Lithgow, Robert Lowell, Christopher Nowinski, Pat Toomey, David Vitter, Naomi Yang, and Randi Zuckerberg.

Sources

• Harvard Dorm History Search for past residents

References

2. "Canaday E Musallah". Hcs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
3. "Dorm History Search". Hcs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
4. The Unofficial Guide" Harvard Student Agencies. Freshman Dorms.
5. "John F. Kennedy Slept Here; Soon You Will Too". The Harvard Crimson. 27 June 1995. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
6. Harvard University (1949). Education, bricks and mortar: Harvard buildings and their contribution to the advancement of learning. Harvard University. p. 77.