The Quadrangle at Harvard University, formerly called the Radcliffe Quadrangle or the Harvard Annex dorms, is part of Harvard's undergraduate campus, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Generally just called the Quad, it is a traditional college quad except that it is not located in, or even contiguous with, the heart of campus. It should never be confused with Radcliffe Yard and certainly not with Harvard Yard — the latter of which is the heart of Harvard's campus.
Geography
The term "the Quad" can refer to the rectangular green field bounded by Cabot House and Pforzheimer House, or it can refer to the entire surrounding section of campus. In this larger sense, its borders are Garden St. to the west, Linnaean St. to the north, Walker St. to the east, and Shepard St. to the south. This consists of, of course, the Quad green as well as Hilles Library and all of Pforzheimer House, Cabot House , and Currier House , including the Cabot Masters' Residence and the Jordans, even though they're east of Walker St.
Currier and Hilles are separated from the rest of the Quad by a paved road, a private way used mainly by campus shuttlebuses, that runs north-south through the Quad.
Other adjacent portions of campus, such as the Botanic Gardens, Kittredge, the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (Q-RAC), and the Observatory, are often also grouped as part of the Quad.
Quadlings
Residents of the three Quad Houses are called Quadlings; they tend to be disproportionately loyal to their Houses and to each other as an outgrowth of their shared tribulation — isolation from the main campus.
All nine other Houses, called River Houses for their proximity to the Charles River (and inhabited by Riverdwellers), all freshman dorms, and almost all undergraduate classrooms and department offices are located in the main, monolithic block of campus, which is located about a mile from the Quad, and which is often called the River by Quadlings: non-Quadlings don't normally think of it as a thing that needs a name. It is easily possible for a Riverdweller to spend four years at Harvard without ever leaving the River, but a Quadling has to make the trek almost every day.
Thus, it's no surprise that most freshmen fear the Quad (they have no control over which upperclass Houses they will be randomly assigned to), that many Riverdwellers mock the Quad, and that most Quadlings at some point feel bitter about it.
However, the benefits of Quad life are often overlooked by non-Quadlings: fervent spirit and Quad community, as has been mentioned; better housing arrangements than the River on average; and the power to literally walk away from class at the end of the day. The drawbacks are also exaggerated — the Quad is no farther from the Science Center than Mather or Dunster, and shuttlebuses run to the Yard throughout the day and to the entire campus at night. Nonetheless, the shuttles don't really come frequently enough to totally compensate for the distance, and it's true that Quadlings who want to see their River friends usually have to initiate the visit.
History and Nomenclature
The Quad began as housing for (female) Radcliffe College students in 1901; male students first moved in aroudn 1970. The Quad became fully coresidential in 1972.
For much of its history, its dorms were called "Annex housing", after the "Harvard Annex", Radcliffe's original name, but at some point it came to be called the "Radcliffe Quadrangle". Around 2002, three years after the dissolution of Radcliffe as an undergraduate institution, the name was changed to The Quadrangle. Signs were placed on all four Quad street corners (as part of the Silken Renovation of 2002) emblazoned only with the Harvard shield and the words "The Quadrangle: Harvard University". Additionally, the name "The Radcliffe Quad" was changed to "The Quadrangle" in Harvard's maps.
For more on Radcliffe's shifting role in the University, see Radcliffe College.
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