Leverett House is one of twelve undergraduate
residential Houses at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. It is situated along the north bank of the
Charles River
The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...
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
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.
McKinlock also houses the Leverett Dining Hall, the Junior and Senior Common Rooms, the Old Library Theatre, the Faculty Dean's Residence, and several other common spaces.
The Leverett Towers (commonly referred to as F- and G-Tower, corresponding to their respective entryway labels) serve a primarily residential function. Each tower consists primarily of singles and doubles and holds approximately 150 students. The top floors of the towers - especially those facing south - boast outstanding views of the Boston skyline and the Charles River.
The ground floor of G-Tower features a common area called "G-Hutch." Like the Iliad Suite's wet t-shirt contest, protests from female students led to the renaming of G-Hutch
from a similar, but more inappropriate name.
G-Tower has been historically associated with small-scale,
all-male group sexual encounters.
The reason for this association has sparked ample debate; although the most well-evidenced and most likely reason for this association is the actual occurrence of such events, some alumni have suggested that this name may simply be the pun "Or-G-Tower."
The ground floor of F-tower includes a common area similar to the one found in G-Tower, as well as several offices belonging to the
Allston Burr Resident Dean and House Administrator. Between the towers and McKinlock sits the Leverett Library, which was constructed along with the towers and has won awards for its innovative design. The ground floor of the library building houses the building manager's office.
The top floors of 20 DeWolfe Street were annexed by the house in fall of 2007. Originally intended for faculty or graduate students, the DeWolfe suites are smaller apartment-style units with different amenities than those available in either McKinlock or Leverett Towers, including kitchens and a year-round HVAC system.
History
Leverett House was named after
John Leverett (whose grandfather,
John Leverett had been the governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
), who was President of
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
from 1708 to 1724. Leverett's election was one of the significant turning points for Harvard, for every President before him had been a clergyman. Leverett was a leader of the liberal movement in the
Congregational Church
Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...
and he opposed the powerful clergymen
Increase Mather and
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he join ...
, who had attempted to impose upon the College a new charter containing a loyalty oath that would have refused appointment to the faculty of anyone not willing to acknowledge the primacy of Biblical scripture. Leverett, during his tenure as president, improved the quality of instruction in the College, and maintained the position of Harvard in the critical years when
Yale was becoming a formidable rival.

In the mid-1920s, Harvard constructed student residences on the banks of the recently dammed
Charles River
The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...
. These residences were initially occupied by freshmen. McKinlock Hall, built in 1925, was one of those original buildings. The building was donated by the family of Lieutenant George Alexander McKinlock Jr, a Harvard graduate who was killed by a German machine gun near
Soissons in 1918.
With the formation of Leverett House in 1930-31, Mather Hall, across Mill Street, was built along with the present dining hall and Master's residence. Six squash courts were also constructed, adjacent to Mather Hall. Leverett remained in that configuration until the early 1960s, when the College expanded and new Houses were added. Mather Hall became a part of
Quincy House, the squash courts were lost, and the Leverett Towers were built. The
Saltonstall family gave money for a new library in honor of the ten generations of Saltonstalls who had attended Harvard, and the House offices moved to the first floor of F-Tower. Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott designed the two-story library, as well as the two twelve-story Leverett Towers that were constructed at the same time. 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
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...
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
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...
, and later with the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
.
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
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...
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.
Howard and Ann, more commonly known as Chief and Coach respectively, were particularly beloved for their house pride, their dogs, their popular Not-Just-Sherry Hour weekly receptions, and their fresh-baked
monkey bread, a delicious cinnamon-flavored treat popular among Leverett students.
Brian D. Farrell and Irina Ferreras de la Maza were appointed as the eighth Faculty Deans in 2018.
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.
People
Notable alumni of Leverett House include
Aga Khan IV,
Colin Jost,
Timothy Crouse,
Andrew Glaze,
Al Jean
Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...
,
Alexander Keyssar,
Anthony Lake,
Steven Levitt,
Jeremy Lin,
Saul Perlmutter,
Mike Reiss, Chief Justice
John G. Roberts,
Sydney Schanberg,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
,
Laurence Tribe,
John Weidman,
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...
, and
Pete Buttigieg.
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, ...
was a music tutor for the house.
Archibald MacLeish
Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action ...
,
Perry Miller, and
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...
lived on the top of F-Tower. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Shaun Donovan, both cabinet officials in the
Obama Administration, also resided in Leverett during their times at Harvard.
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
Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential colleges of Yale University, residential college at Yale University named after two presidents of Yale, Timothy Dwight IV and his grandson, Timothy Dwight V. ...
.
External links
Leverett House official site"LevSPN" - Official YouTube Channel for Leverett Intramurals
References
{{Authority control
Harvard Houses
1931 establishments in Massachusetts