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Cabot House is one of twelve
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...
residential Houses at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. Cabot House derives from the merger in 1970 of
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and h ...
's South and East House, which took the name South House (also known as "SoHo"), until the name was changed and the House reincorporated in 1984 to honor Harvard benefactors Thomas Cabot and Virginia Cabot. The house is composed of six buildings surrounding Radcliffe Quadrangle; in order of construction, they are Bertram Hall (1901), Eliot Hall (1906), Whitman Hall (1911), Barnard Hall (1912), Briggs Hall (1923), and Cabot Hall (1937). All six of these structures were originally women-only
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and h ...
dormitories until they were integrated in 1970. Along with Currier House and Pforzheimer House, Cabot is part of the Radcliffe
Quad Quad as a word or prefix usually means 'four'. It may refer to: Government * Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States * Quadrilateral group, an informal group which inc ...
. , the Faculty Deans of Cabot House are Ian Miller and Crate Herbert. Prior Masters include then-Radcliffe President
Mary Bunting Mary Ingraham Bunting (July 10, 1910 – January 21, 1998) was an influential American college president; ''Time'' profiled her as the magazine's November 3, 1961, cover story.
and '' New Republic'' publisher Martin Peretz.The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Timeline: 1972-1976
/ref>


History


Great experiment

In 1970, Harvard and Radcliffe began experimenting with co-educational housing. 150 Harvard students from the River Houses (including former Dean of Harvard College
Benedict Gross Benedict Hyman Gross is an American mathematician who is a professor at the University of California San Diego, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College.Straus Hall in Harvard Yard, went co-ed. Today, all Harvard dormitories, including the three Houses of the Quadrangle, house both men and women.


Birth of Cabot House

In 1961 Radcliffe College began to organize the brick buildings of the Radcliffe Quad into residential colleges in the style of Harvard. These Houses were styled North, South, and East, in reference to the cardinal directions of the building clusters. Cabot House (originally named South House) was formed in 1970 when East House and the original South House were merged. Anna Maria Abernathy held the title of Head of House, and she and her husband Fred served as Cabot’s first House Masters (now Faculty Dean). In 1971, Mary Bunting, President of Radcliffe, began her tenure as House Master. Bertram Hall, Radcliffe’s first permanent dormitory, was built in 1901 and donated by Mrs. David Pulsifer Kimball in memory of her son. In 1906, Eliot Hall, also donated by Mrs. Kimball, was built in honor of Grace Hopkinson Eliot, wife of Harvard President Charles W. Eliot. Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr, designed both Bertram and Eliot Halls. Barnard Hall was built in 1912 and named for Augusta Barnard and her husband. Briggs Hall, named for Radcliffe’s second president, LeBaron Russell Briggs, was constructed in 1923, and Cabot Hall, named in honor of Ella Lyman Cabot, member of the Radcliffe Governing Board from 1902 to 1934, followed in 1937. The sixth building, Whitman Hall, was completed in 1911 and named for Sarah Wyman Whitman, the creator of two of the stained glass windows in Memorial Hall and a member of the Radcliffe Governing Board for several years. The Faculty Deans’ residence is located at 107 Walker Street. A residential wood-frame house at 103 Walker Street is the Senior Tutor’s residence. While the outside of the brick dormitories has remained unchanged, renovations to the House 19 years ago and to the dining area in the summer of 2002 provide new facilities and newly configured suites more in line with the "vertical hallway" arrangements of the River dormitories.


Shield

The Cabot House shield was adopted when South House became Cabot House, in 1984. The shield is the coat of arms used by the
Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English coloni ...
Cabots after whom the House is named, though, the shield is not their heraldic achievement; the coat of arms actually belongs to the French family Chabot, to whom the Boston Cabots have no relation. Cabotoix have a unique affection for their shield, its red fish in particular. They are the inspiration for the common House cheer, "Go Fish!"—a play on the popular card game. Cabotoix feature their coat of arms on various apparel, including polo shirts, rugby shirts, and hooded sweatshirts. The standard coloration is used, or its inverse. The House Office also has an antique copy of the Cabot Shield which had been hanging in the dining hall before the renovations. Oddly, this shield's colors are drastically different, although the shield still features the same general design and motto: the field is black and the perch are silver, and the crest is a white scallop shell. While the origin of this scheme is unknown, these colors are identical to those of Trumbull College, Cabot's sister college at
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
. The standard arms are described heraldically as follows: Or, three chabots, haurient, gules. Crest: an escallop, or.


Motto

The Cabot family motto is 'Semper Cor,' meaning 'Always Heart'; this motto is shared by Cabot House.


Colors

The House colors, red and gold, are derived from the House shield; black, one of Radcliffe's colors, is an unofficial color, featured in much House apparel.


Community and traditions


Dining Hall

Cabot's Dining Hall is very different from those at the River. Unlike other House Dining Halls, Cabot's is not enormous, paneled in mahogany and decorated with oil paintings, marble busts, and medieval tapestries. The dining hall—completed during the 1987 renovations of the Quad, replacing what is now the JCR as the House's cafeteria—is an intimate and bright space. Located beneath the Moors Hall (Pforzheimer House) terrace, the three-tiered room is painted white, its floors carpeted; as the long wall facing the Quad is almost entirely glass, it is bathed in natural light throughout the day. The servery likewise is bright and airy, with knotty pine walls and earthenware tile floors. It is one of the most recently renovated House serveries, completed in 2002. More than serving merely as the House cafeteria, the Dining Hall is the center of House activity. Aside from being the site of hours-long, social dinners, each evening the Dining Hall fills with students who work together on
problem set A problem set, sometimes shortened as pset, is a teaching tool used by many universities. Most courses in physics, math, engineering, chemistry, and computer science will give problem sets on a regular basis. They can also appear in other subjects ...
s and projects for various subjects.


Stein Club

Cabot House Stein Club is the Junior Common Room beer-appreciation society to which every member of the Junior Common Room (that is, all House residents) automatically belongs. Every other Thursday evening throughout the school year, Stein Club meets in one of Cabot's six Living Rooms, usually in Briggs or Barnard Hall, or in the dining hall. At each meeting, students socialize over various types of ale, purchased by the House Committee. Each year, ceramic steins are ordered which bear the House insignia and the name of the owner. Stein Club attendance is very high in Cabot; tutors and the Faculty Dean are also known to attend for a beer and fraternization.


Cabot Café

Cabot Café is a coffee shop located in Cabot House at Harvard University. It is the only House with a coffee shop that is completely student run and operated. The Café offers coffee, espresso drinks, hot chocolate, tea, chai, cookies, and more. Cabot Café serves as a venue for student performers and other on-campus events. Since opening in September 2011, Cabot Café has become a social space on campus, with students trekking from all the other Houses to hang out with friends or study.


Cabot House Theatre Board

The Cabot House Theatre Board manages the Cabot Theatre. The theater traces its roots back to the Cabot Experimental Theater in the 1960s. Every year, the Theatre Board puts on a student-run musical. The 2019 musical was
Footloose (musical) ''Footloose'' is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow (among others), the lyrics by Dean Pitchford (with additional lyrics by Kenny Loggins), and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. Plot Act 1 ( ...
.


Intramural sports

Cabot fields a strong intramural sports squad each year. Cabot holds the record for most consecutive Straus Cups (awarded to the House with the most intramural points accrued during the school year) with seven wins between 1994 and 2001.


Dutch Auction

To raise money for student events, the House Committee holds a Dutch Auction each spring. Students and tutors can offer a service or object to be auctioned. In past years, students have offered to write theme songs for individual House members, to clean rooms, to go on a date, and so on; Cabot alum
Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer. Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...
donated an autographed copy of
Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing ...
's new album during his senior year. The Auctioneer for the Dutch Auction is usually a prominent member of the House or the House Committee. Dutch Auctions are known for being wild events, with heated bidding wars and drunken revelry.


Festivus

A newly adopted tradition popularized by
Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and ...
,
Festivus Festivus () is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focu ...
is a very popular dinner during the month of December featuring cuisine from a multitude of cultures around the globe.


Faculty Deans, Resident Dean, Tutors, and Staff

, the Cabot Faculty Deans are Ian Miller and Crate Herbert. Miller is a professor of History and Herbert is the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Previous Faculty Deans (then known as House Masters) have included
Rakesh Khurana Rakesh Khurana (born November 22, 1967) is an Indian-American educator. He is a professor of sociology at Harvard University, Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College. Early life an ...
, Dean of Harvard College, Jay M. Harris, Dean of Undergraduate Education and Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies; Jim Ware, Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics; Jurij Striedter, Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures; and
Rulan Chao Pian Rulan Chao Pian (), née Rulan Chao (April 20, 1922 November 30, 2013)
, Professor of Music and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the first non-white House Master in Harvard's history. Allston Burr Resident Dean Ken Thomas began serving as Resident Dean in 2021. Resident Tutors are academicians and/or professionals who live in the House and provide academic, career and life guidance to House residents while undertaking further studies, research and professional ventures. Resident Tutors at Cabot House have included:


Constituent halls

Cabot House comprises the following six halls: * Cabot Hall * Whitman Hall * Briggs Hall * Barnard Hall * Bertram Hall * Eliot Hall Cabot, Whitman, Briggs and Barnard are connected by a series of tunnels in the basement. The Dining Hall, JCR, and Grand Entry also serve to connect these buildings above ground. Bertram and Eliot Halls, the oldest, are not connected to the rest of the house, but are a short distance away, co-located on the Radcliffe Quadrangle. The Faculty Deans' Residence and Resident Dean's Residence, 107 and 103 Walker Street, respectively, are located directly across the street from the rest of the house, and are the only such residences in the Harvard House system not to be physically connected to the rest of the house.


Notable alumni

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Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...
, Prime Minister of Pakistan File:Stockard Channing 1984 crop.JPG,
Stockard Channing Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American actress. She is known for playing Betty Rizzo in the film '' Grease'' (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series '' The West Wing'' ...
, actress File:Rivers Cuomo Performing in 2015 - Photo by Peter Dzubay.jpg,
Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer. Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...
, musician File:Greg Daniels Spain.jpg, Greg Daniels, screenwriter File:Kerry Healey, Mass GOP Chair.jpg, Kerry Healy, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts File:Helen Keller circa 1920 - restored.jpg, Helen Keller (South House), author and political activist File:Fiona Hill MSC 2017 (cropped).jpg, Fiona Hill, Russian advisor in Trump administration File:Jim Koch 2013.jpg,
Jim Koch Charles James Koch ( '; born May 27, 1949) is an American entrepreneur, billionaire, and the co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, the producers of Samuel Adams beer. Koch is widely considered to be the founding father of the Amer ...
, Co-Founder of
Boston Beer Company The Boston Beer Company is an American brewery founded in 1984. Boston Beer Company's first brand of beer was named Samuel Adams after Founding Father Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot. Since its founding, Boston Beer has started ...
File:Soledad O'Brien.jpg, Soledad O'Brien, journalist File:Bonnie Raitt at John Edwards presidential campaign.jpg,
Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated ...
, singer-songwriter File:MiraSorvino07TIFF.jpg,
Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's '' Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...
, actress File:Jack Reacher- Never Go Back Japan Premiere Red Carpet- Edward Zwick (35338298422).jpg,
Edward Zwick Edward M. Zwick (born October 8, 1952) is an American filmmaker and producer of film and television. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and epic historical film genres, including ''About Last Night, Glory, Legends of the Fall,'' and ...
, film producer File:Kenneth C. Griffin photo.jpg, Kenneth C. Griffin, founder of
Citadel LLC Citadel LLC (formerly known as Citadel Investment Group, LLC) is an American multinational hedge fund and financial services company. Founded in 1990 by Kenneth C. Griffin, it has more than $50 billion in assets under management . The company ...
File:KBJackson.jpg,
Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson ( ; born September 14, 1970) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on February 25, 202 ...
, Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
* Lindsay Crouse, actress *
Ellen Goodman Ellen Goodman (née Holtz; born April 11, 1941) is an American journalist and syndicated columnist. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980. She is also a speaker and commentator. Career Goodman's career began as a researcher and reporter for ''Newsweek ...
, journalist


References


External links


Cabot House official site
{{Harvard , state=expanded Harvard Houses Radcliffe College and Institute