Last week, the first-years got their house assignments and I’m beyond excited to announce that I will be living in Mary Ellen Chase House! I requested Chase House for their small but strong house community, substance-free housing, and single rooms!

Here’s a little Chase House history via the Smith College Website:

“Originally built in 1827, Chase House was occupied by several prominent local families until established as a school for girls by Mary A. Burnham in the 1870s. The Burnham School was incorporated into the college as a campus house in 1968 and named for Mary Ellen Chase, an accomplished writer and professor of English literature at Smith.”

Within 24 hours of my assignment, both Sarah (our Head of New Students) and Esther (our House President) reached out with interest surveys and offered their knowledge when needed. I already feel so welcome!

Chase’s substance-free housing extends to the house events, the entire third floor of the house, and rooms 214-223 on the second floor. This means that Chase House events are on the milder side haha! This is a great situation for me, one where I can go out to a party in the Quad but can always come back to a quiet home!

Less than 15% of first years get singles so I am feeling extremely lucky to be in that percentage! I hoped to receive a single room because, while I enjoy socializing with my peers, I also enjoy having a space for myself where I can tune out the noise and relax. Plus, it will make for a great study space if I find myself distracted in the library!

Bonus! Chase House is in the perfect location for me: right across from the Museum of Art!

The general stereotypes of Smith housing are that the houses closest to the academic buildings (Green St and Lower Elm) are the quieter houses, houses farthest from the academic buildings (the Quad) are louder houses, and houses in the middle (Center Campus, Upper Elm) are a mix depending on the house and the year! I would say that the Quad is not actually loud like people make it out to be. The Quad just has a higher concentration of students in one area, so of course they will be more general noise and you will hear people talking, laughing, and partying (on the weekends). The other houses tend to be really quiet, even during the weekends. However, don’t fret about the different areas of housing because you will find people of all different types no matter where you live. For example, I live in a pretty quiet house (Northrop), but my best friend (who also lives in Northrop) and I are not quiet people. I don’t think that there is that big of a difference between houses, and, if you end up in a house you don’t like, you can move really easily!

Duckett House // Lower Elm Street by Madeline Elwell ‘18, Duckett House President 2015-16

The first thing you should know about Duckett House is that our mascot is a duck. Duckett is among the smallest houses on campus with only 37 residents. Duckett’s house community is extremely tightly knit — whether it is hanging out on a wintery weekend or looking for some packing tape, Duckett’s residents have got you covered. Because we are so small, we can do lots of activities as a whole house, which makes for a really fun time.

Duckett is located on Lower Elm across from the Smith College Museum of Art. Every academic building (including the gym!) is less than a ten minute walk away. Downtown is no more than a 5 minute walk. Duckett has its own dining hall but three other dining halls are within a two minute walk (so if you want vegetarian lasagna, pancakes for dinner and tacos in one meal, you can have it).  

Including Smith traditions that we do as a house, like our winter and spring weekend parties, Friday afternoon teas, and Mountain Day activities (we go to MacLeish field station for the day and do the challenge course!), we also have our own house traditions. We hold a Thanksgiving potluck, a gift exchange before winter break, cheesy nights (cheesy bread plus cheesy movies), house council bonding at trivia night downtown, a trip to the corn maze in the fall, a Superbowl party (complete with wings), and more.

Our house is a bit quirky (after all, our mascot is a duck). The third floor is known as “Horse Hallway” because it is always covered in pictures of horses. We have house penguins that often surprise people in the stairwell or in the bathroom and that are passed down through the generations. There is a table where our close knit community eats most meals together called the “Duckett Table” which, despite starting with only eight chairs, usually fits our entire house. Duckett alums come back to visit because of the close friendships that they have with people in the house. Class year is mostly ignored when everyone in Duckett is hanging out.

As for me? I have found love and support around every corner of Duckett. Whether we are dancing in the living room or crowding in at dinner, I feel that I am part of a very special community. Nowhere else have I stayed up until two in the morning because the conversation is too good to fall asleep. I know that if I am having a bad day, there is always someone that loves me unconditionally waiting for me at home. It’s a really special feeling to know that the community I am finding in Duckett will be mine forever. That’s just how Duckett rolls.

Hey there! Congratz on committing to Smith! That’s so exciting and we can’t wait to have you here! To break it down for you:

East Quad (King, Scales, Gardiner, Jordan, Emerson, & Cushing) - East Quad is perhaps the rowdiest part of campus. Generally, most parties are here and the houses tend to be the loudest and most social. There are a lot of singles in East Quad (King and Scales are all singles) and the houses are all around 80 people.

West Quad (Gardiner, Morrow, Wilson, Comstock, & Wilder) - Similar to East Quad but perhaps *slightly* less rowdy. This area of campus is farthest from the rest of campus but closest to the Friedman Apartments. Wilson is the biggest house on campus with over 100 people, and the rest of the houses are home to about 80 people. I have a lot of friends who live in West Quad and it’s a fun time!

Green Street (Tyler, Morris, Lawrence, Washburn, Hubbard, & Chapin) - Green Street is often seen as the antithesis to the quad. It’s the most quiet area of campus and is closest to the academic buildings. Hubbard and Chapin both have grab-and-go lunch on weekdays. All of the Green St. houses house about 70 residents, except Washburn which houses 43. Green Street is going to be the most affected by the renovation of Neilson library (Washburn will actually temporarily be shut down and its residents are moving to Parsons House on Upper Elm until the construction is done).

Lower Elm (Albright, Baldwin, Chase, & Duckett) - Similarly to Green Street, Lower Elm is a pretty quiet area of campus. It’s the closest to downtown Northampton (literally less than a 5 minute walk) and has some of the smallest houses on campus as well as housing for Ada Comstock scholars. It’s home to the one substance free house on campus (Chase) and is the closest to Dawes, the gluten-free dining hall. Also, Baldwin is one of the few houses on campus with suites.

Upper Elm (Northrop, Gillett, Lamont, Talbot, Capen, & Parsons) - From what I can tell, Upper Elm houses have some of the closest house communities on campus. Upper Elm is not as social as the Quad but not as quiet as Green St. It’s also home to the Capen Gardens and the vegan/vegetarian dining hall (Northrop/Gillett). Like the Quad, it’s a purely residential area of campus, but is closer to the rest of campus. All the houses are around 70-80 people.

Center Campus (Cutter, Ziskind, Haven/Wesley, Park, Sessions, Tenney, & Hopkins) - Center Campus has a pretty wide range of houses. Cutter and Ziskind are the only two houses with air conditioning. Sessions is the oldest house on campus (and is rumored to be haunted!). Tenney and Hopkins are the two co-ops on campus (they aren’t open to first years though). All center campus houses are like they sound - central. They’re close to the Campus Center, the Quad, and aren’t far from the academic buildings or downtown.

Hope this helps!

Hello!

Out of convenience, I think the artistically inclined students usually live on Lower Elm! The art building is right across the street from that area, and it’s a lot easier to go to the studios at any given time. I also know art majors who live on Green St and Upper Elm though!

Hello! If you want to be close to the gym and downtown I would suggest looking at houses on Lower Elm and Green Street! Both, areas of campus will keep you relatively close (within a five minute walk)  to all of the academic buildings. But, Green Street will be a little closer to the gym and Seeyle and Lower Elm will be a little closer to downtown. If you would like more detail you can check out a campus map here.  I hope this helps!

Smith Cribs // Albright House // Amelia ‘20