Mather House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. Opened in 1970, it is named after Increase Mather, a Puritan in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

who served as

President of Harvard University The president of Harvard University is the chief academic administration, administrator of Harvard University and the ''Ex officio member, ex officio'' president of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard Corporation. Each is appoi ...

from 1681 to 1701. Mather's Faculty Deans are

Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan FRS is a scientist of Indian origin, and is currently the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Physics at Harvard University. His work centers around und ...

and Amala Mahadevan. Mather is known for its nineteen-story concrete tower built in a

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

style. Mather's blocky concrete architecture reflects the anti-uprising style of the day of its construction. Mather residents are guaranteed single bedrooms for all three years of their residency. Mather's second building, a low-rise surrounding a courtyard, has suites with large common rooms and small bedrooms, whereas suites in the high-rise have large bedrooms and no common rooms. Other than houses in the

Radcliffe Quadrangle The Radcliffe Quadrangle (or Rad Quad as it is known to students of the College) is the second Quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle of University College, Oxford, University College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England. The buildings have b ...

, Mather is the house farthest from Harvard Yard, but the school provides regular shuttle service between the Yard and Mather's courtyard. Mather House was a favorite choice for hard-partying varsity athletes before housing assignments were randomized by the school. The house is known among students for its social life and a spacious, newly remodeled dining hall with a view of the Charles River. Mather's sister college is

Morse College Morse College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College and the two colleges share many facilities. The current Head of College is Catherine ...

at Yale University.

History

Opened in 1970, Mather House is the most recently constructed of Harvard's houses. It takes its name from Increase Mather, a Harvard alumnus and prominent Puritan minister in the

who served as the University's president from 1685 to 1692. The architectural firm that designed Mather House,

Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic, religious, and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry ...

, is also responsible for the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the original campus of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(along with Frederick Law Olmsted), the Ames Building, and the completion of Boston's Trinity Church.

Social life and the Lather

The open architecture of Mather's common spaces makes it easy to host social events. Mather's Housing Committee hosts happy hours every two weeks. In addition, the House hosts formal dances twice a year, as well as student-faculty dinners once a semester. Most prominent among Mather social gatherings is the Mather Lather, a College-wide foam party that takes place every spring in the dining hall. Since its first run in 2003, the Lather has grown in scope and fame, earning the attention of the Boston media and '' The New York Times''. The Louie Cup is a year-long

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

-like tournament of games that takes place in the House. Generally, an event is held every week in which one or more representatives of each team (comprising a group of 4-6, usually roommates) competes. The games include a pancake-eating contest, foosball, a dining hall version of Iron Chef, and hot pepper-eating, as well as a wiffle ball home run derby, ping pong, Wii sports, dodgeball, and boggle. The events are open to the campus but tend to take place in Mather. The tournament is named after Louie's Superette, a convenience store across the street from Mather House, and a large quantity of alcohol is awarded to the winning team at the end of the spring semester. The house's well-known rivalry with Kirkland House has sparked heated exchanges of practical jokes and pranks. While Mather is generally seen as the instigator and aggressor, the rivalry began when a number of Mather students transferred to

Kirkland House Kirkland House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located near the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was named after John Thornton Kirkland, president of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. B ...

. Mather won the Harvard Green Campus Initiative Green Cup in 2006 and 2011 and the Greenest HoCo award in 2008. Mather House has recently won the Straus Cup in both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years, Harvard's intramural sports championship prize.

Notable alumni

File:Cornel West 2008.jpg, File:Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal.jpg, File:John Palfrey-20080313.jpg, File:Conan O'Brien by Gage Skidmore.jpg, File:John Trasvina official portrait.jpg, Other notable alumni include Michael Kinsley,

David Laibson David Isaac Laibson (born June 26, 1966) is a professor of economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1994. His research focuses on macroeconomics, intertemporal choice, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics. In 2016, he bec ...

Nicholas Ciarelli Nicholas M. Ciarelli (born September 5, 1986) is an American journalist and was Editor-In-Chief of Think Secret, a website he started in 1999 at the age of thirteen and ceased publishing on December 20, 2007 after reaching a settlement with Apple ...

, Sarah Haskins,

Kimberly Marten Kimberly Marten is an author and scholar specializing in international security, foreign policy, Russia, and environmental politics. She held the 5-year-term Ann Whitney Olin Professorship of Political Science at Barnard College from 2013 to 2018, ...

, and

Luis Ubiñas Luis Antonio Ubiñas (born 1963) is an American investor, businessman and nonprofit leader. He served as the president of the Ford Foundation from 2008 through 2013. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, he had an 18-year career as a senior partn ...

References

External links

Mather House official site

Mather Connect for Alums and Students
{{Harvard , state=expanded Harvard Houses Brutalist architecture in Massachusetts Residential skyscrapers in Massachusetts