Kirkland House is one of the 12 undergraduate houses at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, located near the Charles River in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
. It was named after
John Thornton KirklandJohn Thornton Kirkland served as President of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. A minister like many of his predecessors, he is remembered chiefly for his lenient treatment of students...
, president of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. Some of the buildings were built in 1914 but construction was not completed until 1933. Kirkland has fewer residents than most Houses at Harvard, but has nevertheless managed to win many intramural and house-spirit contests, most recently the 2006 Straus Cup.
Kirkland House is one of the 12 undergraduate houses at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, located near the Charles River in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
. It was named after
John Thornton KirklandJohn Thornton Kirkland served as President of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. A minister like many of his predecessors, he is remembered chiefly for his lenient treatment of students...
, president of Harvard University from 1810 to 1828. Some of the buildings were built in 1914 but construction was not completed until 1933. Kirkland has fewer residents than most Houses at Harvard, but has nevertheless managed to win many intramural and house-spirit contests, most recently the 2006 Straus Cup. Before Harvard opted to use a lottery system to assign housing to upperclassmen, Kirkland was considered the "jock house" because its location near Anderson Bridge and the Soldiers Field made it a desirable home and convenient place to dine for Harvard athletes.
Kirkland House boasts many
traditionThe word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
s such as its opening ceremony (complete with Minutemen reenactors playing the drums and fife as they process around the House, followed by the house masters, tutors, and students), Secret Santa week (an in-house-only series of gifts, jokes, and events) -- accompanied by bawdy skits in the dining hall, a winter dance nicknamed "IncestFest" (a debaucherous dance open only to members of the house), and the annual "Case Day," celebrated on the first Friday of spring semester, in which Kirkland House residents compete to finish a case of beer in 24 hours.
Kirkland House has also hosted several celebrities and political guests over the years. During the race for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominantion, Kirkland House hosted Richard Gephardt,
Joe LiebermanJoseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut. First elected to the Senate in 1988, Lieberman was elected to a fourth term on November 7, 2006...
,
Dennis KucinichDennis John Kucinich is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections....
,
John EdwardsJohnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician who served one term as U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth...
,
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,
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,
Al SharptonAlfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
, and
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee....
, and held informal symposium with several political experts. The Kirkland House dining hall has hosted luncheons honoring
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,
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,
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,
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,
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, and
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among others, during the college's annual diversity celebration, "Cultural Rhythms." Kirkland is also annual host of the Harvard College Democrats' "Leadership Award Dinner," held every spring in Kirkland's dining hall. Recent award winners have been Alabama Congressman
Artur DavisArtur Genestre Davis is an American politician who has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing . It encompasses the counties of Choctaw, Sumter, Greene, Perry, Hale, Dallas, Wilcox, and Marengo...
(in 2005), former Virginia Governor
Mark WarnerMark Robert Warner is an American politician and businessman, currently serving in the United States Senate as the Junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Warner was Governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and is the Honorary Chairman of the Forward...
(in 2006) and Kansas Governor
Kathleen SebeliusKathleen Sebelius is an American politician currently serving as the 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services...
(in 2007).
Kirkland House has a gym, lounge, game room, music rooms, and performance and event spaces for students. It also has a wall honoring the history of the Kirkland House Boat Club, which has won Harvard's intramural men's sweeps regatta more often than any other House. Most recently, Christopher T. Row, a resident tutor, art history doctoral candidate, and master of divinity student, led the KHBC to five consecutive victories and was awarded the title of "Admiral-for-Life."
Kirkland House is located four blocks south of
Harvard YardHarvard Yard is a grassy area of about twenty-five acres , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
, adjacent to
Eliot HouseEliot House is one of twelve residential houses for upperclassmen at Harvard University. Opened in 1931, the house was named after Charles William Eliot, who served as president of the university for forty years...
, and across Dunster Street from the Malkin Athletic Center. Sharing a kitchen with
Eliot HouseEliot House is one of twelve residential houses for upperclassmen at Harvard University. Opened in 1931, the house was named after Charles William Eliot, who served as president of the university for forty years...
, the two dining halls are known for the best food on campus, and Kirkland's staff is committed to providing exceptional customer service.
The House Seal is a black cross with three silver stars on a red field.
Famous Kirkland alumni include
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,
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,
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Thomas SowellThomas Sowell , is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the...
,
Pat ToomeyPatrick Joseph "Pat" Toomey, Sr. is an American elected official. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, a Republican representing the Lehigh Valley-based 15th congressional district from January 1999 to January 2005, when he retired after running for a seat in the...
, and
Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American billionaire and entrepreneur best known for co-founding the popular social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. Zuckerberg serves as...
.
2009 shooting of Justin Cosby
On May 18, 2009, Justin Cosby was shot in the basement of the J entryway of Kirkland House as part of a failed robbery attempt. Emergency medical services found Cosby outside the Office of Career Services, about one block from Kirkland, and transported him to
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterBoth an international and regional referral center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital...
in Boston, where he died the following morning.
Over the next few months, Massachusetts and New York identified and arrested three men who allegedly committed the robbery and homicide: Blayn "Bliz" Jiggetts, of Mount Vernon, NY, and Jabrai J. Copney and Jason Aquino, both of New York City. None of the alleged assailants nor the victim was a Harvard student. Two Kirkland residents gave electronic access to the victim, who had come to campus to deal marijuana. One of the alleged killers was the boyfriend of a student. Harvard barred a female student from graduating with the class of 2009 pending the investigation, although its reasons for doing so were not publicly disclosed. The student, Chanequa N. Campbell, told the press that she was unconnected to the shooting and that the school's decision to bar her from campus and withhold her diploma was motivated by racial bias.
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