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Dunster House is one of 12 undergraduate residential houses at Harvard University. Built in 1930, it is one of the first two Harvard dormitories 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 was unique among Harvard dormitories for its sixth-story walk-up (it had no elevators); these rooms were originally rented by poorer students, such as Norman Mailer.
The House was named in honor of Henry Dunster, Harvard's first president.
Dunster is 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 underwent a "full House renewal", a comprehensive renovation, that was completed in 2016. It was the first of Harvard's residential houses to undergo such a renewal.
Like many of Harvard's Houses, Dunster has many yearly traditions, including Keg Races in the fall, a Messiah singalong in the winter, a Goat Roast in the spring, and the yearly Dunster House Opera. It is known as one of the more social houses, with Stein Clubs and formals in either the dining hall or courtyard.
Dunster's Faculty Deans (formerly known as "house masters") are Taeku and Shirley Lee. The House's first master was Chester N. Greenough (Harvard class of 1898), an English professor and former dean of Harvard College. Former faculty deans/house masters include Sean Kelly and Cheryl Chen, Roger Porter and Ann Porter, Raoul Bott, and Sally Falk Moore and Cresap Moore. Gregory Davis currently serves as the Allston Burr Resident Dean.
Dunster's mascot is the moose, inspired by the three golden Moose on the Dunster family crest.
| Chester N. Greenough[1] |
| Clarence H. Haring[2] JHU Press, 2011, p.62[3] |
| Gordon M. Fair [4][5] |
| Alwin Max Pappenheimer Jr.[6] |
| Roger Rosenblatt[7] |
| James Vorenberg & Elizabeth Vorenberg[8] Harvard Magazine, 2002[9] |
| Raoul Bott[10][11] |
| Sally Falk Moore & Cresap Moore[12] |
| Karel F. Liem & Ann Liem[13] |
| Roger B. Porter & Ann R. Porter[14] |
| Sean Kelly & Cheryl Chen[15] |
| Taeku Lee & Shirley Lee[16] |
Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were roommates at Dunster House in the late 1960s. Other notable Dunster alumni include Tatyana Ali, Christopher Durang, Lindsay Hyde, Dan Wilson, Michael Mainelli, Jean Kwok, Alan Garber, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Danielle Sassoon. "Jewish Center names prize winners," The Harvard Gazette, May 22, 2008. In 1995, resident Sinedu Tadesse killed her roommate Trang Ho in Dunster before dying by suicide in a closet.Thernstrom, Melanie. Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder. Plume Books, September 1998. ()
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