Whether you’re a freshman who’s just moved in or an upperclassman who’s spent 90% of last year in their room, there’s no doubt that dorm rooms have a central effect on the college experience. Haverford has a wide variety of residential buildings, each with their own ups and downs – some frequently discussed, others ignored. Inspired by the McMansion Hell blog and building from a PowerPoint I made as a joke last year for my hall, here is my commentary (read: roast) on the Haverford College dorms. (And, since I know I’ll be asked why, apologies for not including Leeds and Lloyd. Not only do I constantly mix them up, but there aren’t many good pictures of them online.)
1. Barclay
A little spoiler: this is the one dorm I don’t have anything bad to say about. It’s my favorite building on this campus – probably due to the fact I’ve been inside maybe three times (my friends who lived there tell me I would feel differently if I spent more time there). However, I will continue to admire from afar. I mean, it’s centrally located, has big window ledges, AND there used to be a tower on the fourth floor that burned down in the late 1800s (picture here). (Also, bats).
2. Gummere
Now Gummere is the obvious choice for blatant architectural criticism – I mean, the aerial view of it is just a horrifying sight. But inside of this “unsightly cinderblock” building is a room I miss dearly, because living there gave me one of the best semesters I’ve had so far at this college. So this is a no-Gum hate zone, remember that! However, all of those “Gum doesn’t exist” jokes circulating in my freshman year do have some grain of truth to them, seeing as there is virtually no picture on the internet that shows you the entire building
3. HCA
Clocking in at my third semester down here, the apartments are the longest place I’ve lived in on campus. Who wouldn’t want to be able to live pseudo-independently and not have to depend on the DC? The experience becomes decidedly less sweet once you learn that this used to be a low-income housing complex before Haverford slowly swooped in and “kicked out” the previous tenants (technically, they just raised the rent, but come on – I feel like we can see an agenda here) and then hacked off a few trees on the nature trail to build the path that leads upcampus.
4. Tritton and Kim (who can tell them apart, anyways)
If there is nothing available about the acquisition of the apartments online, Tritton and Kim are just the opposite – the college is crying out for these buildings to be noticed. Having not been near them since March of 2020, sometimes the fact that I used to live there feels like a fever dream. (The study rooms? Did anyone use them? I preferred to stay in my room, the measurements of which are hilariously 8×11 – everyone gets their own piece of paper!)
5. North Dorms
Thinking about the class of 1967 yearbook editorial that called these “toadlike” (let me know if you see it, because I don’t). Last year was a sad end of an era when we saw both the death of the four-person housing group and the changing of hands for these to now become freshman spaces. Who knows where we’ll be in spring room draw once admin realizes that the egregiously large class of 2025 will still need somewhere to live. I’m just here for the drama.
6. Drinker
I don’t have anything more to say about Drinker than what its Wikipedia page will say for me: “College students used to seek a good time at Drinker’s prime venue. However, starting around 2017, people began going to more events hosted in the apartments. In exit surveys, students revealed this trend was due to better music, more space, and more convivial company. This is an objective truth.”
(I’ll let you guys sit with this for a while. There is so much to unpack in this short paragraph that I’m still thinking about it. It gets better with the info that this was last updated in August 2021.)
7. Bonus: Covid Isolation Rooms in the Campus Center
Only the lucky few on campus will have the privilege to stay in these rooms for a week – or maybe not so lucky, because it means you can only communicate with people via window a la Romeo and Juliet style (while enjoying the freshly prepared DC dinner delivered to your door at 4 pm). Shoutout to my two friends who were in isolation here and provided me with the majority of these comments.
All original photos came from the Haverford Reslife website https://www.haverford.edu/reslife, except for the campus center photos, which came from the Haverford Clerk article “Haverford’s Guest Rooms Uncovered” (March 29, 2015)
http://haverfordclerk.com/haverfords-guest-rooms-uncovered/. Text was added by author.
Websites consulted for background information:
“Home at Haverford” (December 11, 2012).
https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/home-haverford. “Drinker House” (Last edited August 31, 2021). Wikipedia.
“Question about dorms” from r/Haverford. https://www.reddit.com/r/Haverford/comments/nvkvc1/question_about_dorms/.
