A homecoming for Adams House alums

Historian Dick Ryerson.

Photos by Jodi Hilton

Jacob Sweet

Harvard Staff Writer

September 26, 2025 6 min read

Tours, talks, tributes to history and community mark celebration of six-year project to refresh space

Before John Adams was a president — and long before his family became the namesake for Adams House — he was a nervous incoming Harvard undergraduate.

As historian Richard Ryerson described during a recent Harvard talk, Adams was so spooked to take his College entrance exam that he almost skipped it. He decided to proceed only after thinking about the potential reactions of his father and his tutor.

Ryerson’s talk was one of many well-attended events at the 2025 Adams House Homecoming, where more than 300 alumni, tutors, and staff gathered to meet friends, pay tribute to the House history, and celebrate the end of six years of renovation.

Though Adams’ father hoped he would follow in his footsteps and join the clergy, Adams realized that wasn’t the career for him. “Fortunately, Harvard’s lively undergraduate culture soon came to the rescue of this bewildered sophomore,” Ryerson said, “as it has so often done over the centuries.” Adams discovered he was a skilled speaker. “It was whispered to me and circulated among others,” he wrote, “that I should make a better Lawyer than Divine.”

Adams’ career as a lawyer proceeded in a standard way until the Stamp Act of 1765, when he helped persuade the Massachusetts governor to reopen the Colonial courts that had been closed in protest of the tax.

His reputation as a champion for the Colonial legal system grew when he successfully defended the British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre — a defense many of his peers were unwilling to make. He later became the leading penman of the Massachusetts Patriot movement and, Ryerson argued, perhaps of all the colonies. Adams joined the first Continental Congress, edited and signed the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the Treaty of Paris, became the country’s first vice president, and ascended to the presidency.

‘There’s so much space in here that we didn’t even know about’

After the talk, attendees packed into the Gold Room, eager to explore the newly renovated space. Tours, some led by Aaron Lamport ’90, an architect on the project with his firm Beyer Blinder Belle, brought multiple generations through the House.

Lamport, as well as co-Faculty Dean Salmaan Keshavjee, emphasized that the main goals for the renovation were to restore worn facilities, improve accessibility, and expand student gathering spaces.

“There’s so much space in here that we didn’t even know about,” remarked Laura Dickinson ’92, who was visiting from Maryland. Among other new gathering spots, the former private homes of the Harvard Outing and Mountaineering clubs have been converted to gathering spaces. Lamport explained that architects wanted more House space to be available to Adams students, while the clubs moved to the Quad. “It gave them a much better place to store their kayaks,” he said.

Other rooms, like the former home of the Bow and Arrow Press, the Adams letterpress printing studio, have been remodeled as student common rooms and study spaces. (The press found a permanent home at the Harvard Library’s printing studio.)

Adams’ classic features have been refreshed. Walking down the stairs toward the Gold Room, Lamport urged visitors to look up at the Moorish dome, modeled after the Sala de Poridad in Burgos, Spain. “Many people don’t remember it,” he said, “because it was so dirty and encrusted with tobacco smoke.”

The renovation also added accessibility features, including new elevators and lifts. Those entering the Gold Room can now take an elevator upstairs leading them to the overflow dining space, outdoor seating, and the library. The dining hall itself also grew, with an expanded servery, kitchen, and seating area.

“It’s been quite a six years,” said Keshavjee, “but it’s worth it. And I think it’s going to be something that people can use for the next 100 years.”

Co-Faculty Dean Salmaan Keshavjee pauses at a portrait of Harvard graduate Franklin D. Roosevelt for whom the F.D.R. suite is named.

Leading a tour, Jed Willard points out the Moorish dome.

A student studies in one of the many recently renovated common areas.

A portrait of former Adams House Faculty Deans Judith and John Palfrey by artist William Shen ’22 (center). Shen speaks with Chukwudi Ilozue ’25 and Harvard Medical School student Eduardo Duran.

‘Fight for the diversity and beauty and the love of a community like this’

With the House itself renewed, the weekend also honored the people who shaped its spirit. In a packed Lower Common Room, hundreds gathered to honor the legacy of former Faculty Deans Judith and Sean Palfrey, both ’67, who retired from their roles after 22 years of service in 2021. The Palfreys stood alongside current faculty deans Keshavjee and Mercedes Becerra, ’91, as they revealed a new portrait by William Shen, a recent Adams House graduate and current medical student.

Shen, who was advised on the new oil painting by Harvard portraitist and alumnus Stephen Coit, ’71, M.B.A. ’77, celebrated the Palfreys for their contributions to Boston Children’s Hospital and the field of pediatrics, as well as their generous leadership of the House.

Shen was followed by a slew of other speakers — former dining hall staff, alumni, and tutors — who spoke to the Palfreys’ legacy of making everyone, regardless of background, feel at home. Ed Childs, a former union organizer and member of the dining hall staff, remarked that the Palfreys were so beloved by his union, whose meetings they hosted, that they put Judy Palfrey’s name forward as their ideal candidate for University president. “For the dining hall workers, Judy and Sean were family. They put us on the same social ladder. It showed respect,” he said.

In a closing speech, Judy Palfrey recalled a woman who approached her in Adams House, got nose-to-nose with her, and said, “You are blessed.”

“That stuck with me,” Palfrey said. “What she was saying was, being here at Harvard, being here in a House, being with the students and so forth, is an incredible blessing. And I thank God every night, actually, for that blessing, and for you, our friends.”

Sean Palfrey echoed his wife’s sentiment and encouraged people to aspire to build the type of community in their own lives that they observed in Adams House. “Go into the very diverse and also sometimes divisive world out there,” he said, “and continue to fight for the diversity and beauty and the love of a community like this.”