Dunster House was built in 1930, and is one of the first two Harvard University dormitories constructed under President Abbott Lawrence Lowell's House Plan, and one of the seven Houses given to Harvard by Edward Harkness. The House was named in honor of Henry Dunster, a "learned, conscionable and industrious man," who became the first President of Harvard University, and 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 Big Tom Tower of Christ Church, Oxford. Above the east wing is the Dunster family coat of arms.
Famous inhabitants of Dunster House have included Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones, who were roommates there in the late 1960s. Dunster, like many of the Harvard Houses, has many yearly traditions, including The Messiah sing-a-long in the winter, the goat roast in the spring, and the yearly Dunster House Opera. Dunster's current Masters are Roger Porter , who served in the White House during the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and Ann Porter.
Dunster's mascot is the moose, thought to be a misinterpretation of the three golden elk on the Dunster family crest.
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Last updated: 10-12-2005 03:40:59
