Currier House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, United States. Opened in September 1970, it is named after Audrey Bruce Currier, a member of the

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

Class of 1956 who, along with her husband, was killed in a plane crash in 1967. The area was formerly used as housing for

, and as such the four towers of Currier House are named for distinguished alumnae of Radcliffe, including the author Barbara Tuchman. Along with Cabot House and Pforzheimer House, Currier is part of the former Radcliffe Quadrangle, known colloquially as simply "the Quad."

Building

Currier House consists of four towers containing mostly single rooms adjoined by a sink room or bathroom. Currier also has some coveted living arrangements, including the "Ten-Man," which is a suite of ten singles and three full bathrooms arranged around Harvard's largest common room, and three penthouse suites nicknamed "Solarium rooms." In 2005, Currier renovated a common space known as the "Fishbowl" to set up an entertainment center with a big screen projector and surround sound system. Currier 009

Faculty Deans and Resident Dean

The current Faculty Deans are Latanya Sweeney and Sylvia Barrett. The Allston Burr Resident Dean is Laura Johnson. Previous deans have included scholar of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

and former Dean of

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

William A. Graham, chemist and Nobel laureate Dudley R. Herschbach,

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Gregory Nagy, and historian of science Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz.

Athletic success

In 2004–2005, Currier House won the Straus Cup for the first time in over twenty years. The cup is given to the house that scores the most points in intramural athletic competition during the school year.

Student government

Student government in Currier House consists of the Currier House Committee, of which all house residents are members. The committee operates separately from the Harvard Undergraduate Council (UC), to organize student events and manage funding. The Currier HoCo, like student government organizations in the other Houses, is funded by the UC and maintained by an executive council run by students in leadership positions. Elections for the two Chair positions and the other social organization positions are held each January during the Super Bowl Halftime show, which is broadcast in the Fishbowl common space. The two HoCo co-chairs are Jacob Miller and Annie Garofalo.

Famous alumni

Notable alumni include: *

Michael Chertoff Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) is an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security to serve under President George W. Bush. Chertoff also served for one additional day under President Barack Obama. ...

(class of 1975) *

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...

(1976) *

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

(class of 1977, but left before graduating) *

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He i ...

(1977) *

Caroline Kennedy Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, diplomat, and attorney who served as the List of ambassadors of the United States to Australia, United States ambassador to Australia from 2022 to 2024. She previously serv ...

(1980) *

Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysics, astrophysicist, author, and science communication, science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia Univ ...

(1980) * Paul Attanasio (1981) * Alan Khazei (1983) *

Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is known for his tenure with the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, Morello was a membe ...

(1986) *

Sylvia Mathews Burwell Sylvia Mary Burwell (; born June 24, 1965) is an American government and non-profit executive who is president of the Harvard Board of Overseers and was the 15th president of American University from 2017 to 2024. Burwell was the first woman t ...

(1987) * Seth Moulton (2001) *

Damien Chazelle Damien Sayre Chazelle (; born January 19, 1985) is an American filmmaker. He directed the psychological drama ''Whiplash (2014 film), Whiplash'' (2014), the musical romance ''La La Land'' (2016), the biographical drama ''First Man (film), First ...

(2007/08) * Justin Hurwitz (2007/08) *

Michelle Wu Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; pinyin: ''Wú Mǐ''; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. She is the first woman and the first person ...

(2007) Gates and Ballmer met in Currier House, where the two lived on the same floor, and formed a friendship that later led Gates to recruit his college friend to join his budding software company. Gates also described during his 2007 commencement address at Harvard how he initiated one of his first software deals while making a call from his room in Currier House."Remarks of Bill Gates", ''Harvard University Gazette Online''
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References

External links

Currier House official site

Harvard Quadrangle map

Photo album featuring Currier House life, by the Harvard Gazette
{{Harvard , state=collapsed Harvard Houses Radcliffe College and Institute