12 Yard Dorms House '55

Freshmen entering Harvard this fall will find the best living accommodations of almost any college in the country. Twelve dormitories will house the Class of '55 in the Yard, the center of the University. Five modern dormitories--Wigglesworth, Straus, Lionel, Mower, and Massachusetts--were built or remodeled after 1925. Today construction of these halls would be out of the question because of multiplication of building costs.

The other Yard dorms were built before the start of the 20th century (one in the 18th century), but all these halls have rooms that are larger than the average ones in other colleges. In addition, these old dorms have enough tradition to make up for the sloping floors.

At Radcliffe, there is a seven-building quadrangle and off-campus converted private homes to take care of the overflow.

Radcliffe girls can entertain men in their common rooms until 10 p.m., but Harvard freshman entertaining is some-what limited with permission slips needed from the proctor and a 7 p.m. deadline.

The Yard dormitories fall into four distinct types--the modern type, the ancient Hollis (1763) and Stoughton (1805) kind, the large Holworthy (1312) and Grays (1863) variety, and finally the post-Civil War style of Matthews, Weld (both 1872) and Thayer (1870).

Modern Wigglesworth, Straus, Lionel, and Mower were built to close the Yard off from noisy Harvard Square. The subway runs under Wigglesworth, but men get used to this and the other clatter from street traffic which reaches all four halls.

Except for Straus, the living rooms and bedrooms in these halls are a little small, but each suite has its private bathroom and the dorms appear almost brand new. The top floor rooms of these and all of Harvard's traditional dormitories suffer space inroads from a slanting roof.

Massachusetts, built in 1720 but remodelled last in 1935, has just a few students on its third and fourth floors. Student pranksters are repressed in the daytime as President are Conant's offices are located on the first two floors. Separate entrances are supplied to the dorm rooms which have semi-private baths.

Students get to know each other very well when living in either Hollis or Stoughton which have single rooms as complete apartments. Four rooms on a floor make the dorms noisier than the modern ones which tend to have just two suites per floor. Few men complain about the communal bathrooms. Almost all dorms, new or old, have showers.

Neither Griys nor Holworthy are especially attractive halls, but large suites make up for this. In the former what used to be two separate rooms has been combined into one apartment with a private bath for the residents. Holworthy has two suites (living room and two bedrooms) per floor with both occupants sharing the same bath.

Pinpoint Bombing

The entries in Thayer. Matthews, and Weld contain the most men per entry. Every year some one of the seven entries in the three halls is notorious, as far as the dean's office is concerned. The grades of men in the entry are probably no lower than average, but students have a good time on football weekends and occasionally overturn a fire-extinguisher or engage in pinpoint bombing out of the window.

All of the three have community baths, but the size of the living rooms and bedrooms varies throughout.

For seven of the freshman halls, the room numbers have nothing to do with the floor on which the suite is located. Students who were worried when they were assigned to Thayer 68 can look forward to a fourth floor room. Students can get an idea from the following paragraphs where their room will be located in Grays, Hollis, Holworthy, Matthews, Stoughton, Thayer, and Weld.

Grays (middle entry five floors, other two entries four floors)--East entry, rooms 1-2 to 15-16; middle, 18-19 to 35-36; West, 41-42 to 51-52. Part of Grays' lower floors is used as offices.

Hollis and Stoughton (both four floors)--South entry, rooms 1 to 16; North, 17 to 32.

Holworthy (four floors)--West entry, 1 to 8; middle, 9 to 16; East, 17 to 24.

Matthews (five floors)--North entry, 1 to 30; South, 31 to 60.

Thayer (middle entry five floors, other two entries four floors)--middle entry, 1 to 20; South, 21 to 44; North, 45 to 68.

Weld (five floors)--South entry, 12 to 27; North, 33 to 55. The first two floors of Weld South are offices, as is the first floor of Weld North.

Maids are a luxury that the College still offers in spite of rising costs. The Cambridge women who come in to clean have been known even to darn the socks of a student, but others merely straighten out the beds each morning. Student porters will fill in for the maids in a few places this year.This is one of the College's seven upperclassmen Houses (LOWELL) which are located on or near the Charles River. After spending their first year together in the Yard, freshmen will apply in April for one of the seven. Each House provides living quarters, its own dining hall, library, and common rooms, and each House has its own dances, lectures, plays, and parties. The Houses and the commuters, as a group, also compete in intra-mural athletics and at the end of the fall season face their opposite number at Yale. The Houses all have their masters--senior professors whose homes are a part of the hall; in addition young instructors and professors live as tutors throughout the House. The whole system is an attempt to combine small-college friendship with a large college and its distinguished faculty.