CALTECH STUDENT HISTORY NOTES
THE NORTH HOUSES
In 1958, Development was given the task of raising $800,000 for each of three new Student Houses which would be situated across the Olive Walk from the existing South Houses. It was thought possible to raise this amount from individual donors. The reality was that it was much harder to raise this money than had been visualized, and only one of the three houses was funded by a single donor. The Lloyd Foundation provided the funds for Lloyd House in honor of Ralph B. and Lulu Lloyd. Incidentally Lloyd House also received an endowment from the Lloyd family which made it to this day the most wealthy of the Houses. The funds for the other two North Houses were pieced together from various sources and were named in honor of James R. Page and Albert B. Ruddock, both former chairmen of the Board of Trustees. The new, North Houses were designed by the architectural firm of Smith, Powell and Mockridge who, within severe monetary limitations, tried to copy the baroque Mediterranean style of the Old Houses with limited success.
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| View from Ruddock lounge, North Houses. |
The new houses were completed in time for the Fall of 1960 and the way in which they were to be populated had to be decided. After much debate the IHC decided to do this by voluntary sign-ups amongst upperclassmen. Rotation would be suspended for one year and freshmen assigned on a random basis. However, when the sign-up sheets went up in the old houses, not one person signed up. Various emergency contingency plans were discussed including the housing of foreign graduate students. In the end the problem solved itself during elections for house leadership when many students seeking office realized that their only hopes lay in the new houses. Needless to say there were some specific patterns to this migration. Page was primarily populated by former Ricketts members, and Lloyd by off-campus students. Ruddock was populated by a mixture of south house residents with a strong Dabney contingent. The allegiances created by these migrations lasted well into the 1980s.
Last updated 4/10/04.
Christopher E. Brennen