Leverett House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. It is situated along the north bank of the Charles River in Cambridge and consists of McKinlock Hall, constructed in 1925; two 12-story towers completed in 1960; and two floors of 20 DeWolfe Street, a building Leverett shares with two other houses at Harvard.
Structure
right|thumb|McKinlock Courtyard When Leverett House opened in 1931, it originally occupied two buildings: McKinlock Hall and Stone Hall, which Quincy House now occupies and to which students often refer, perhaps misleadingly, as "Old Quincy." Today, House's facilities currently consists of three main residential buildings, McKinlock Hall, F-Tower, and G-Tower; a subsidiary building housing the House Library and building services; and several apartment suites annexed from the former DeWolfe graduate housing.
The bulk of McKinlock Hall consists of 5 entryways (labeled A through E), each of which leads to four or five floors of suites for approximately 35 students. Prior to McKinlock's 2014 renovations, each of these entryways was centered around a single stairwell, accessible only from a single door—the "entryway"—on the exterior of the building. This is the predominant arrangement of Harvard dormitories prior to the mid-20th century. The 2014 renovation replaced the entryway arrangement with a more typical hallway arrangement.
McKinlock Hall's oval window belongs to the Iliad Suite, named for an anonymous donor. This suite, highly coveted amongst Leverett seniors, is awarded to the “Most Attractive” group of rising seniors selected during a House-wide popular vote. Historically, the suite was awarded to the winners of a House-wide wet t-shirt contest, a practice banned in the early 2010s due to protests from female students that began after Radcliffe College's full incorporation into Harvard College. G-Tower has been historically associated with small-scale, all-male group sexual encounters. In 1983, McKinlock was renovated, and at that time a new entrance to the dining hall was constructed.
The first Master of the House was Kenneth Murdock, Professor of English and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The second Master was Leigh Hoadley, an embryologist and professor of zoology. Hoadley resigned in 1957, shortly before Leverett was to be renovated.
The third Master was John J. Conway, a scholar of Canadian history. He married his wife Jill, who was a graduate student in Harvard's history department at the time, in the early 1960s.
The fourth Master was Richard T. Gill, an economist. A bass singer, Gill sang each year in the Leverett House Opera, which was a fixture in the House. While Master, he auditioned for the New York City Opera and was offered a contract. He accepted and left Harvard, economics, and Leverett to begin a new career, first with the New York City Opera, and later with the Metropolitan Opera.
The fifth Co-Masters, Kenneth Andrews and Carolyn Andrews, were appointed in 1971. During their tenure, the Houses became coeducational. Andrews was a professor at Harvard Business School and the first Business School faculty member to be appointed Master. During Harvard's 350th anniversary celebration in 1986, Andrews was one of 20 individuals who received a Harvard Medal for distinguished service to the University. His citation read: "He understands, as Mark Twain never did, how business works best; his writings elucidate the complex subject to the benefit of his Harvard colleagues and of managers everywhere."
Renowned biologist John E. Dowling and his wife Judith were appointed as the sixth Co-Masters of Leverett House in 1981 and served until 1998.
The seventh Faculty Deans, Howard Georgi and his wife Ann, were appointed in 1998 and served until 2018. Their two-decade tenure established them as some of the most beloved House Deans during that time; they formed a key part of the House's social fabric and were highly regarded amongst their peers for their dedication towards and building of the Leverett community. Farrell is a professor of biology and curator of entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ferreras is a curatorial assistant at the Harvard University Herbaria.
The House's leadership in the mid- to late-2010s proved fraught and controversial. During Farrell's and Ferreras' time as Faculty Deans, they began initiatives to bring to the House an appreciation of art and nature. Tapping into their personal interests and areas of expertise, the Deans invited Brazilian artist to exhibit his works and began hosting nature walks for students. However, many students perceived these events as infrequent, unappealing, and inadequate; as a result, they received criticism for their perceived refusal to address student concerns and a perceived lack of dedication to the house. This, accompanied by their abandonment of the long-cherished house traditions established by the Georgis, led to a contentious house atmosphere. Farrell and Ferreras announced their departure following the 2022 academic year. This period coincided with the tenure of the similarly-controversial Bilal A. Malik's tenure as Resident Dean. Due to ongoing dissatisfaction with Malik's lack of attentiveness towards student needs and concerns, his selective enforcement of House rules against students and tutors, and his perceived spirit of animosity towards undergraduate students, Malik ultimately departed early in the Fall Semester of 2019 under the pretext of living closer to his family.
Eileen Reynolds and Daniel Deschler currently lead the house as faculty deans.
Notable alumni
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File:His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan meeting the President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind (cropped).jpg|Aga Khan IV
File:Colin Jost 301 (cropped) (cropped).jpg|Colin Jost
File:Official roberts CJ.jpg|John Roberts
File:Al Jean by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg|Al Jean
File:Steven Levitt, 2012.jpg|Steven Levitt
File:Amanda Gorman 2017 (cropped).jpg|Amanda Gorman
File:Jeremy Lin Adidas (cropped).jpg|Jeremy Lin
File:Larry Tribe in 2019.png|Laurence Tribe
File:Cornel West by Gage Skidmore.jpg|Cornel West
File:Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation.jpg|Pete Buttigieg
File:Rep. Jake Auchincloss 218th Congress Portrait.jpg|Jake Auchincloss
</gallery>Other notable alumni of Leverett House include Timothy Crouse, Andrew Glaze, Alexander Keyssar, Anthony Lake, Saul Perlmutter, Mike Reiss, Sydney Schanberg, Pete Seeger, John Weidman, Archibald MacLeish, Perry Miller, Lillian Hellman, Arne Duncan, and Shaun Donovan. Yo-Yo Ma, who lived in Currier House as undergraduate, was a music tutor for the house.
House symbols
The House Shield is a derivative of the ancient Leverett family crest depicting three hares rampant with an inverted chevron. The family name is derived from the word "leveret" (with one "t"), which means young hare; family tradition has it that the earliest recorded family members were keepers of ferrets, which were trained to chase rabbits from their burrows. The official house colors are black and yellow, appearing on the earliest House paraphernalia that can be found. However, the combinations of black and red as well as green and yellow are often used. Annual T-shirt designs usually feature some combination of those four colors. Leverett House has a sister house at Yale, Timothy Dwight College.
External links
- Leverett House official site
- "LevSPN" - Official YouTube Channel for Leverett Intramurals