Small Houses are the brick residential units that appear throughout campus. Commonly referred to as dorms, yet considerably smaller in size and number of residents (anywhere between 35-48 people), the houses were built during the late-1950s and early-1960s to appease the burgeoning student population.
In their early years, many were on-campus homes to university social groups that lived together and promoted a sense of collaboration. These social groups later morphed into nationally-recognized sororities and fraternities – some choosing to remain on campus while others have relocated off-campus or disbanded altogether. On occasion some buildings have temporarily housed specific groups of students (e.g. athletes or the Bearkat Learning Community), or university offices during transitional periods (such as Residence Life and the University Police Department).
Today most houses are open to any upperclassmen, though four remain dedicated solely for sorority use.
Geographic Grouping
Over the years the Residence Life has given each group of houses a named based on their area on campus. For example, in 1997, four houses at the intersection of Avenue I and 20th Street were called "Four Central,” and four other houses further south along Avenue I were "Four South." Somewhere along the way the groups were combined ("South-Central") and eventually dubbed "The Valley." “Four West” makes sense – four houses located west of main campus. However, the only collective name that ever seemed etched in students’ memory was “Sorority Hill,” identifying the eight houses on the northern edge of campus and, literally, atop a hill.
Fraternity Row was a semi-official name given to the four most-western houses on Seventeenth Street during the 1960s.
Honorary Names
The people that most of these residences honor run the gamut of university departments and disciplines. From our conversation with the University Archivist in July 2007, it is rumored that a survey was circulated around campus in the late 1950s asking each department to identify someone within their section to honor on student housing, à la small houses (and, presumably, the Departmental Dorms). This is apparently why you'll find houses honoring an instructor from the 1920s (Hathorn), a dean from the 50s (Creager), a former university president (Mallon), a prominent member of the Huntsville community (Gibbs), a former First Lady of the United States (Jackson), and even an elusive member of the library staff that was associated with the university for a few short years (Gidley, see story).
Future
Because most small houses are situated on prime campus real estate, it is no surprise that university master plans regularly call for their demolition.
As of August 2007:
