First Quincy Residents Establish a New House Spirit

In the fall of 1959, 230 hand-selected Harvard men moved into Quincy House as the original occupants of the College’s first contemporary residence.

Breaking with the architectural tradition of the initial seven Houses, Quincy’s concrete, high-rise exterior and novelty imbued its initial inhabitants with the freedom to build an interior House character from the ground up.

As one of Quincy’s original 150 sophomores, Robert J. Gordon ’62 recalls the sense of pomp and privilege surrounding the newly-constructed eighth House.

“In Quincy, we were proud of our modern, posh surroundings and thought that we were destined to become the conceited house in 1959,” said Gordon.

An October 12, 1959 correspondence between Gordon and his parents captures his sentiments towards his new residence.

“I’m not talking about the spirits we drank—the ‘God-damn-if-Harvard-isn’t-the-best-place-in-the-whole-world-and-Quincy-House-in-particular’ spirit,” Gordon wrote.

In both blueprints and character, Quincy House distinguished itself from the traditions etched in the walls of its ivy-clad counterparts.

HIGH-RISE REALITY

Prior to Quincy’s construction fifty years ago, 1,200 additional students were living in Harvard undergraduate housing above the number the dorms were built to accommodate.

In response to the deepening housing shortage in 1957, President Nathan M. Pusey ’28 announced the start of ‘A Program for Harvard College,’ an effort that resulted in three additions to the undergraduate residential structure: Quincy House in 1959, Leverett Towers in 1960, and Mather House in 1970.

To solve the problem of over-crowding, a central initiative of his administration, Pusey called for an active fundraising drive by the alumni to address the growing needs of the College.

Pusey’s capital campaign to raise $82.5 million, the equivalent of $287.5 million today, marked the most extensive fundraising campaign to be undertaken by Harvard—or by any other educational institution—at the time.

Quincy’s construction translated President Pusey’s ambitious plans for an expanded campus into a modern, eight-story high-rise reality.

AVANT-GARDE OR ARTISTIC MISHAP?

As the first undergraduate residence to be built after the original seven river Houses of the early 1930s under President Lowell, in 1959 Quincy represented a new Harvard, breaking with the Georgian-modeled House system.

The current site of Quincy House was formerly occupied by a psychological clinic, Mather Hall—a part of Leverett House—and a row of houses on DeWolfe Street, according to a 1957 Crimson report.

And a report published in the next year by The Crimson stated that in order to reduce construction costs, which were projected to amount to $5 million, architects relied on cost-cutting “skip-stop” planning.

Consequently, Quincy House blueprints eliminated the entryway system, bell towers, and multitude of fireplaces that marked the older Houses. Instead, architects opted to have a more economical single corridor run the length of the building.

“We were able to get past the fact that it had zero charm because it had all the modern amenities of 1959,” said Bertram E. Busch ’62, noting Quincy’s non-descript, linoleum looking tile floor and lack of darkwood.

Former residents also noted the appeal of elevators, modern facilities, and individual bedrooms for each occupant, citing these incentives as a draw from the vibrant culture of the existing Houses.

“It wasn’t laden with ghosts of years past,” said John O. Field ’62. “One could imagine 19 year-old fellows thinking ‘this is better than some musky old attic in some other house.’”

In addition to its cutting edge architecture, residents recalled the novelty of the House’s avant-garde art, which Busch characterized as “Picassoesque.”

Yet in the November 28 edition of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Harvard alumni expressed disapproval of the artistic quality of the mural decorating Quincy dining hall.

Gordon G. Sampson 1910 and Bernard A. Merrian 1909 agreed that the “graffito resembled the doodling of inmates in a mental hospital.”

Despite its controversial décor, Quincy House led in popularity, with 29 percent of freshmen identifying it as their preferred place of residence, compared to the 19 percent who listed Adams, according to a Crimson poll conducted in the March of 1959.

A SECOND ADMISSION

The select upperclassmen that were chosen to inhabit the newly-constructed residence were charged with the task of establishing a unique House character.

“Creating a new House is an adventurous undertaking,” Quincy’s first master John M. Bullitt ’43 said in 1958. “We want active students to participate in building a House worthy of the other seven,” Bullitt said.

In this competitive House application process, Quincy’s first undergraduates were personally interviewed by Bullitt, who, according to former residents, was committed to forging a diverse House community.

“Quincy became a kind of melting pot for everything that was true of young men at Harvard,” said Field.

At a time when assignments to Houses resembled a “second Harvard admissions process,” Gordon said, each upperclassman residence was associated with a unique characteristic.

Specifically, undergraduates in Adams were known for being artistic, while Eliot was referred to as the preppy House.

To rival these deeply-rooted House personalities, Quincy quickly formed its own individual House character.

Quincy’s newness contributed to “more free thinking and a greater willingness to violate old Harvard norms in the House,” said Field.

As a result, Quincy became a place for experimentation and advocacy.

The House was the birthplace of a “rebellion against formality,” Field said, noting that Quincy’s first residents began challenging the rule of wearing coats and ties at dinner.

In the decade following its construction, Quincy’s sixth floor balcony became a place for staging rallies, according to Busch.

“Our causes weren’t exactly noble,” Busch said, recalling Quincy students leading a mob of 1,500 undergraduates in the yard to protest the administration’s 1960 decision to transition from papyrus diplomas in Latin to paper certificates in English.

As the first residents established a fledgling House culture, Quincy’s underlying diversity continued to form the basis of its identity.

By 1966, Quincy was the first House to incorporate female tutors and the first to encourage married tutors to raise their families in the House.

Five decades later, Quincy is now commonly known as the “People’s House,” a fitting reference to its diverse roots.

—Staff writer Bita M. Assad can be reached at bassad@fas.harvard.edu.