Graphic by Betty Smart ‘26. A sketch of a map depicting 1837, Buckland Hall and Prospect Hall. Blue dotted arrows connect one to the other. Each building is colored in with a dark red brick color and accents of gray and white—reflecting each dorm’s real-life color.
BY Betty Smart ’26
Staff Writer
How well do we all know the residence halls on campus? There are 18 dorms at Mount Holyoke College. All of them were gradually added to campus following the fire that burned down the College’s original seminary building in 1896. A colorful bunch, the dorms each have distinct quirks and drawbacks. Your personal taste may affect how you see each one, but they all have something to offer that truly makes a resident’s experience unique. This past week, I visited 1837 Hall, Prospect Hall and Buckland Hall, three dorms that were built roughly halfway through the 20th century.
1837 Hall
Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Residential Life.
Built in 1962, the misnomered 1837 Hall — named for the College’s founding year — is perched at the edge of Lower Lake, a quick walk from the Fimbel Maker and Innovation Lab, and connected to the Community Center and Pratt Hall by the colloquially christened Spider Bridge. There are two common rooms with stony floors, wooden walls and blocky furniture. One common room holds two pianos, while the other holds the dorm’s TV and cylindrical stone fireplace. Down the hall from these rooms is the dorm’s charming red Golden Pear kitchen. In the residence floors, soft lights illuminate deep red and soft blue walls and carpeted floors. Almost every room faces Lower Lake and the rest of campus.
The dorm looks particularly lovely at night when the lit-up building reflects on the lake, and the view from inside seems to be equally stunning, if not more. “The view was very important to me when I chose this dorm,” said Domenica Salazar ’26. “It’s really comfortable. … It’s a really bright environment, [probably] because we have really big windows.”
“[My roommate and I] do not have the view. We have the room in the corner, so we get [a view of] the roof.” said resident Dominique Smith ’26. “But our room is bigger [because of that.] … I haven’t had a lot of loud noises, and it’s a nice place to live.”
Life in 1837 is undoubtedly imperfect, however. “[Sometimes] the rooms get really hot. … There’s no air conditioning in the beginning [or] near the end of the school year.” Residents can’t personally adjust the heating, so when the heat turns on, the whole building heats up. “Sometimes it scares my roommate when it turns on!” laughed Smith.
Salazar went on to say, “It would be important to have a hypoallergenic [laundry] machine for residents with allergies or other health concerns.” According to fellow resident Tessa Farruggia ’25, the hypoallergenic machine was recently “[taken] out.”
“There’s always some kind of problem with one of the dorms,” Farruggia continued. However, “There’s an elevator; it works, … [and the website] for the laundry is working again,” so in comparison to Farrugia’s previous dorms, 1837 is “A lot better.”
Prospect Hall
Photo by Betty Smart '26.
Built in 1959, Prospect Hall is nestled snugly between Lower Lake and its namesake hill. It is a tall, brick building four floors high that connects directly to the Fimbel Lab, repurposed from the dorm’s old dining hall. The interior is muted, with dim yellow walls, dark carpeted floors and medium lighting in its decent-sized hallways. Each floor also boasts its own phoneless phone booth next to a similarly sized closet that has been commandeered for student housekeeping. There is one kitchenette on the first floor, and the simplistic common room containing the TV, bulky couches and a table is behind a nondescript door.
The building’s proximity to the Fimbel Lab, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and, by extension, the Art Building itself, makes it the ideal home for the Arts LLC, with the lounge found on the top floor.
“I have a lot of friends here,” said resident Charlie Penna ’27. “We meet in the common room, we watch TV. At the beginning of the year, there were a lot of tiny seed bugs in the windows, and there was also a mouse scurrying around [before break], but I haven’t seen anything [lately]. It’s not pretty. I wish it were a little more open, but it’s nice, and it’s convenient.”
Another resident, Victoria Alliman ’26, wished for a proper kitchen. “Just one tiny kitchenette in the middle of the first floor is kind of random and inconvenient.” Alliman opined.
The problems of Prospect didn’t seem to bother Joyce Jiang ’27, a resident of the Arts LLC, who said, “I love it here. My friend says it looks like a prison, but I don’t think so … I don’t mind about bugs ‘cause I just grab them and throw them out … Everyone [in the Arts LLC] is really nice. And we share something in common, so it’s easier to talk to people, cause people are willing to share their arts.”
Buckland Hall
Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Residential Life.
Built in 1956, Buckland Hall sits at the edge of campus, looking out onto Mary Woolley Circle. A brick cube with white trim, Buckland’s first floor has a spacious common room, a smaller TV room and a conference room-esque space. The walls are pale blue and wintry green with retro carpeting and very cubic furniture, bringing to mind a seaside restaurant. The top floors have wide, straightforward white and beige hallways with carpeted floors and bright lighting. Each floor has its own kitchenette and bathroom. In the basement, accessing the elevator requires another elevator to get to the somewhat raised first residential floor behind unlabeled doors. The basement is similarly labyrinthine, with the dorms there sequestered around the laundry room and a large empty space that appears to be under construction.
This space connects to neighboring Abbey Hall, something that resident Willow Kelleigh ’24 hopes to see taken full advantage of in the future. “I think that they should reconnect Abbey and Buckland Halls so that we can go from one to the other without going outside. … I know someone in Abbey, and they say that their Milk and Cookies is actually in [Buckland]. I have a single, and the square footage is very nice. … I know some people who live pretty central, close to Skinner, and it can get kinda loud out there, so I’d recommend it if you want some nice quiet space for yourself.”
“Showers sometimes get a little weird … the actual showerheads will not be tight enough … [water] will be spraying out sideways.” said fellow resident Keira Carvin ’26. “Also, there’s no towel hooks, [so] you have to be a little careful where you put your things.” But aside from that, “The location is great, especially if you’re a [Film Media Theater] person like me; it’s right next to the theater … On top of that, it’s peaceful here; the rooms are pretty nice. You really can’t beat it.”
These three dorms, at various edges of campus, share a midcentury look that may or may not affect how much you like them. I thought 1837 Hall was the best of the bunch, with a pleasant color scheme and big but cozy common spaces. Buckland Hall, while a little too empty for my liking, had a very clean but not too fancy aesthetic. I really wish Prospect Hall looked a little more interesting, to match its colorful and eclectic neighbor, instead of resembling five nondescript boxes stacked on top of each other. Though each of these dorms had room for improvement, I learned they all had something to offer to the students living there, be it a lovely view, a convenient location or a community of friends.