Thirteen Houses make up the Harvard-Radcliffe House system. Twelve are residences for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. (Undergraduates spend their first year in dormitories in or near Harvard Yard.) A 13th House is a center for graduate students, nonresident undergraduates, and undergraduates living in small cooperative Houses (in which students prepare their own meals and do household chores in exchange for reduced room and board).

Within the larger University, each House functions as a more personally scaled mini-college for enhancing interaction among students, faculty, and other House affiliates. The Houses differ from simple dormitories in that each House offers instructional opportunities (tutorials and small classes); contains its own dining hall, library, and Junior Common Room; and promotes activities related to music, drama, theater, sports, public service, and other special interests.

Every House is overseen by a Master, a senior faculty member or senior administrator whose spouse or partner serves as Associate Master or Co-Master. The House office staff includes an Allston Burr Senior Tutor, who is responsible for students' academic and personal well-being. Each House also has resident and nonresident tutors as well as a superintendent. Non-undergraduate affiliates (Masters, tutors, professors, administrators, visiting scholars, community members) make up the Senior Common Room, which participates in House activities.

Inspired by the centuries-old English university model in which students and faculty live and learn together, the current House system owes its existence to Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell (in office 1909-33), who launched the system in the early 1930s with a $13 million gift from Edward S. Harkness, an 1897 graduate of Yale. Attempts to adapt the English ideal to Harvard stretch back to the beginnings of the College.

The Harvard residential Houses are Adams, Cabot (formerly South House), Currier, Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland, Leverett, Lowell, Mather, Pforzheimer (formerly North House), Quincy, and Winthrop. In addition to being the only nonresidential House, Dudley is the only part of the House system in Harvard Yard.

Residential Houses are located in two distinct areas. South of the Yard, along or near the Charles River, sit the "River Houses": Adams, Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland, Leverett, Lowell, Mather, Quincy, and Winthrop. Northwest of the Yard, around the Radcliffe Quadrangle, sit Cabot, Currier, and Pforzheimer. The original Houses – Adams, Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland, Leverett, Lowell, and Winthrop – opened in 1930 and 1931. Most of the Houses (Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland, Leverett, Lowell, Mather, and Quincy) are named for past Harvard presidents and, in some cases, other members of their families.

< previous   next >