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| - When Smith College first opened its doors to students in 1875, there were few precedents for how a women's college should build its dorms. Unlike the two already existing women's colleges, Mount Holyoke and Vassar, the Smith trustees decided to abandon the model of a large building with many individual student rooms. Instead, they took over a house that had belonged to a local family, Dewey House, in order to give their students a domestic space. Dewey House, designed by Thomas Pratt in 1827 for Charles A. Dewey, was a three-story home with a front porch, parlor, large dining room, and a bedroom for each of the incoming students. (en)
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has abstract
| - When Smith College first opened its doors to students in 1875, there were few precedents for how a women's college should build its dorms. Unlike the two already existing women's colleges, Mount Holyoke and Vassar, the Smith trustees decided to abandon the model of a large building with many individual student rooms. Instead, they took over a house that had belonged to a local family, Dewey House, in order to give their students a domestic space. Dewey House, designed by Thomas Pratt in 1827 for Charles A. Dewey, was a three-story home with a front porch, parlor, large dining room, and a bedroom for each of the incoming students. Smith went with the more domestic model of housing in its early years for two reasons. First, the trustees were concerned that by building a large dorm, they would not be able to afford to hire academically rigorous instructors. Second, there was growing concern in the news and amongst the general public that the type of dorms provided by Vassar and Mount Holyoke encouraged female students to form close bonds verging on the romantic and made students unhealthy and unladylike through academic strain. Seelye, Smith's first president, hoped that by keeping students in homes with a cultured matron keeping an eye on them that they could gain an education while keeping within the bounds of Victorian femininity. Sarah W Humphrey was the first matron of Dewey House, charged with ensuring the students would not overstrain themselves in their studies. In 1877–1879, Smith constructed its first purpose built dorms, all keeping in the style of domestic Victorian architecture, Hatfield, Washburn, and Hubbard Houses, all designed by Peabody & Stearns.
* Dewey House
* Hatfield House
* Washburn House
* Hubbard House (en)
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