Dunster House

Dunster House
Residential House at Harvard University
The central tower of Dunster House
University	Harvard University
Location	945 Memorial Drive
Coordinates	42°22′07″N 71°06′58″W / 42.3686°N 71.1162°W / 42.3686; -71.1162Coordinates: 42°22′07″N 71°06′58″W / 42.3686°N 71.1162°W / 42.3686; -71.1162
Full name	Henry Dunster House
Established	1930
Named for	Henry Dunster
Sister college	Berkeley College
Freshman dorm	Mower Hall, Lionel Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Apley Court
Faculty Deans	Roger and Ann Porter
Dean	Carlos E. Díaz Rosillo
HoCo chairs	Jiho Park and Timothy Kang
Tutors	19
Website	dunster.harvard.edu

Dunster House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. Built in 1930, it is one of the first two dormitories at Harvard University constructed under President Abbott Lawrence Lowell's House Plan and one of the seven Houses given to Harvard by Edward Harkness. In the early days, room rents varied based on the floor and the size of the room. Dunster is unique among Harvard dormitories for its sixth-story walk-up (it has no elevators); these rooms were originally rented by poorer students, such as Norman Mailer.

The House was named in honor of Henry Dunster, a "learned, conscionable and industrious man," who became the first President of Harvard University. He was appointed to the Harvard presidency at the age of thirty-one, immediately after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640. He held the office during the early "troublous" years of the Colony and left the College in 1654 after it had become a well-established institution.

The tower of Dunster House is inspired by, but somewhat smaller than, the famous Tom Tower of Christ Church, Oxford. Above the east wing is the Dunster family coat of arms, and above the west wing is the coat of arms of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Henry Dunster matriculated in 1627. Magdalene College commemorated the relationship between the two universities by sending medieval tracery stones from the First Court of Magdalene; these are now set in the wall near the doors to J-entry of Dunster House.

Dunster is located on the banks of the Charles River next to the John W. Weeks Footbridge, which links Harvard's Allston and Cambridge campuses. From above, its architectural shape, unusual among the River Houses, resembles a branching flowchart due to the odd trapezoidal footprint of the land on which it was built. Dunster is slated for a "full House renewal," a comprehensive renovation that will begin in June 2014.