The central tower of Dunster House.

Dunster House, built in 1930, is one of the first two Harvard University dormitories constructed under President Abbott Lawrence Lowell's House Plan, and one of the seven Houses given to Harvard by Edward Harkness. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Abbott Lawrence Lowell ( January 1, 1856 &ndash January 6, 1943) was a U Edward Stephen Harkness ( January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American Philanthropist. In the early days, room rents varied based on the floor and the size of the room. Dunster is unique among Harvard dormitories for its sixth-story walk-up (it has no elevators); these rooms were originally rented by poorer students, such as Norman Mailer. Norman Kingsley Mailer ( January 31, 1923 &ndash November 10, 2007) was an American Novelist, Journalist,

The House was named in honor of Henry Dunster, a "learned, conscionable and industrious man," who became the first President of Harvard University, and was appointed to the Harvard presidency at the age of thirty-one, immediately after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640. Henry Dunster ( November 26, 1609 – February 27, 1659) was an Anglo-American Puritan clergyman and educator The President is the chief administrator of Harvard University. The Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called the Massachusetts Bay Company, for the institution that founded it was an English settlement on the east coast of North America He held the office during the early "troublous" years of the Colony, and left the College in 1654 after it had become a well-established institution.

The tower of Dunster House is inspired by, but somewhat smaller than, the famous Tom Tower of Christ Church, Oxford. Tom Tower is a Bell tower in Oxford, England, named for its bell Great Tom Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as Above the east wing is the Dunster family coat of arms. A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short in European tradition is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people

Dunster is located on the banks of the Charles River, next to the John W. Weeks Footbridge, which links Harvard's Allston and Cambridge campuses. Legend has it that seniors traditionally jump from the footbridge the night before commencement. From above its architectural shape, unusual among the River Houses, resembles a branching flowchart due to the odd trapezoidal footprint of the land on which it was built.

Dunster, like many of the Harvard Houses, has many yearly traditions, including The Messiah sing-a-long in the winter, the Goat Roast in the spring, the keg races in the fall, and the yearly Dunster House Opera.

Dunster's current Masters are Roger Porter, who served in the White House during the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and Ann Porter. George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12 1924 served as the forty-first President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 The House's first master was Chester N. Greenough (Harvard Class of 1898), English Professor and former Dean of Harvard College. Former masters include Phyllis and Raoul Bott, Karel and Hetty Liem, James and Elizabeth Vorenberg, and Sally Falk Moore. Raoul Bott, FRS (born September 24 1923, died December 20 2005) was a Sally Falk Moore (born 1924 is a legal anthropologist and Professor Emerita from Harvard University. Karel Liem was a fish biologist and would say at every house assembly that for every student's name that he remembered, he would forget the name of a fish.

Famous inhabitants of Dunster House have included Al Gore, Tommy Lee Jones, and John Lithgow, who were roommates there in the late 1960s. Albert Arnold Gore Jr (born March 31 1948 is an American environmental Activist, author Businessperson, former Politician, and former Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award - Golden Globe - Screen Actors Guild - and Emmy Award -winning John Arthur Lithgow (ˈlɪθɡoʊ̪ born October 19, 1945) is an American Actor perhaps best-known for his starring role as Dr The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 Other notable Dunster alumni include Al Franken, Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Durang, Susan Faludi, David Halberstam, Lindsay Hyde, Norman Mailer, Erich Segal, Caspar Weinberger, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Deval Patrick. Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21 1951 is an Emmy Award –winning American Comedian, Writer, progressive Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American Film director, Screenwriter Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American Playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy Susan C Faludi (born) is an American Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist and Author of two well-known Books She won a Pulitzer Prize for David Halberstam ( April 10 1934 – April 23 2007) was an American Pulitzer Prize -winning Journalist Lindsay Hyde (born 1982 is founder and executive director of ( Strong Women Strong Girls Inc Norman Kingsley Mailer ( January 31, 1923 &ndash November 10, 2007) was an American Novelist, Journalist, Erich Wolf Segal (born June 16, 1937 in Brooklyn New York) is an American Author, Screenwriter, and Educator Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger ( August 18, 1917 &ndash March 28, 2006) was an American politician and Secretary Ryan Joseph Fitzpatrick (born November 24, 1982 in Gilbert Arizona) is an American Football Quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals For many years Dunster was reputed to have the highest grade-point average (GPA) of any house. There was a murder-suicide in Dunster House in May 1995 in which a student murdered her roommate, Trang Ho; the previous month, April 1995, two Dunster-affiliated students had committed suicide: Kathryn L. Sinedu Tadesse (b 1974 - d 1995 was a junior in college at Harvard University when she Murdered her roommate Trang Phuong Ho, and then killed herself Tucker '94 and Ansgar Hansen '97.

Dunster's mascot is the moose, inspired by the three golden elk on the Dunster family crest. The moose (North America or elk (Europe Alces alces, is the largest extant Species in the Deer family. The moose (North America or elk (Europe Alces alces, is the largest extant Species in the Deer family. The word crest is often mistakenly applied to a Coat of arms.

External links

• Dunster House official site