Wellesley College Walking Tour

The Wellesley College Walking Tour A guide to some key points on the Wellesley campus, which extends over 500 acres of woodlands, meadows, and water, including Lake Waban, botanical gardens, and an arboretum.This campus tour takes about 60 minutes to complete.

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Strategic Initiatives Summer Programs

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WALKING TOUR LEGEND 1

ADMISSION OFFICE, WEAVER HOUSE

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TOWER COURT

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13 PENDLETON HALL

STONE DAVIS RESIDENCE HALL

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LULU CHOW WANG CAMPUS CENTER

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14 FOUNDERS HALL

HOUGHTON MEMORIAL CHAPEL

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DIANA CHAPMAN WALSH ALUMNAE HALL

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15 GREEN HALL, GALEN TOWER,

SCHNEIDER CENTER, BILLINGS HALL

10 NANNERL OVERHOLSER KEOHANE SPORTS

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CENTER

ACORNS, HARAMBEE HOUSE, SLATER CENTER, CE HOUSE

11 HAZARD QUADRANGLE AKA “THE QUAD”

MARGARET CLAPP LIBRARY AND KNAPP MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY CENTER

12 JEWETT ARTS CENTER, COLLINS CINEMA, THE DAVIS MUSEUM

SUZY NEWHOUSE CENTER

16 SCIENCE CENTER 17 EAST CAMPUS RESIDENCE HALLS

Dower g Lot Parkin

Please note, all campus buildings are currently closed to visitors. Selfguided tours are intended for outdoor spaces only.

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Admission Office Weaver House

Weaver House, with its stunning views of Lake Waban and an approach to campus that is simply breathtaking, is the home of the Admission Office. Named for Trustee Emerita Dorothy Collins Weaver ’68, the building, formerly called Oakwoods, dates back to 1902, when it was built at the behest of Wellesley College President Caroline Hazard to serve as the College’s first president’s residence.

ADMISSION OFFICE WEAVER HOUSE

enjoy the treasures in Special Collections; many classes use the Archives.

The Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center provides students with writing and academic tutoring services, and professors with workshops to advance their teaching methods. You can also borrow laptops throughout the semester.

The Betsy Wood Knapp Media and Technology Center consolidates course support services, media services, and language lab facilities, providing access to state-of-the-art instructional technology.

Faculty, staff, and students collaborate in interactive learning and benefit from the qualified technical support of the Knapp staff.

Tower 07 Court

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Stone-Davis Residence Hall

Overlooking Lake Waban is the Gothicstyled Stone-Davis residential complex housing two of the 20+ residence halls on campus. Students particularly enjoy StoneDavis’s welcoming, circular-shaped dining hall, one of many dining halls on campus.

All residence halls at Wellesley purposely mix students of all four years so they can learn the ropes quickly and have extensive opportunities to meet new people and develop friendships.

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Schneider Center and Billings Hall

Schneider Center contains many of the resources and offices intrinsic to student success: the Class Deans, Registrar, Student Financial Services, and the Student Aid Society. All of these offices are available to students through either daily office hours or individual appointments. Schneider originally functioned as Wellesley’s campus center but was renovated in 2014 to provide a central location for student advising.

Adjacent to Schneider, Billings Hall houses student organizations, including LGBTQ+ Programs and Services, WZLY, and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

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Students also gather in Great Hall, a lovely venue where students hang out, enjoy Dead Serious (improv) or other performances, or simply a cup of tea. Claflin is known for its music room and Alice-in-Wonderland motif.

It also houses the bakery and often smells like fresh baked goods.

TOWER COURT

Houghton Memorial Chapel and Multifaith Center

Gracefully serene and open to all faiths, Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center is central to Wellesley’s spiritual traditions.

Students belonging to different religions within the diverse Wellesley community come to the Chapel to attend religious services and celebrate religious holidays or make use of the 24-hour prayer rooms. Here students also celebrate Flower Sunday, a welcoming ceremony for first-year students, and Step Singing in the spring and fall. The Multifaith Center is a place for learning and discovery for all people.

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Overlooking Lake Waban, Tower Court, Claflin Hall, and Severance Hall make up the largest residence hall complex. Residents can easily access the pathway encircling the lake for a leisurely walk or invigorating run.

The sundial in the courtyard commemorates the original College Hall. Although the courtyard is beautiful year round, the hill leading to Severance Green is the place to be for the best sledding (“traying”) on campus in the winter. Tower Court offers healthy nut-sensitive meal options for all students.

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Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center

The Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, with its labyrinth-like layout and unexpected open spaces, provides an inviting place where members of the Wellesley community can gather for impromptu conversation oe more formal meetings of the College’s 150+ student organizations. Open 24 hours, it houses a bookstore, dining area and coffee bar, a student-run café and pub, spaces for performances and social functions, student mail boxes, the school post office, and many meeting rooms. According to Lulu Chow Wang ’66, for whom the Campus Center is named, “The Campus Center reminds us to enjoy ourselves, restore the balance in our lives, and share the profound as well as the frivolous with old and new friends.”

WANG CAMPUS CENTER

Acorns House is a center that provides space for events and meetings, a study area, large kitchen, and offices for the advisors of students of Asian descent and Latinx students. Harambee House provides social, emotional, and academic support to students of African descent, as well as enlightening cultural activities, while Slater serves a gathering spot for international students and additional cultural celebrations. Davis Scholars enjoy support and camaraderie at Continuing Education House.

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Margaret Clapp Library and Betsy Wood Knapp Media and Technology Center

The Clapp Library is the College’s main library, with extensive collections and ample space for group meetings and individual work. You can explore the Book Arts lab or

Keohane Sports Center

The Keohane Sports Center houses volleyball, squash, and racquetball courts; a weight room; swimming and diving pools; and the Towne Field House, containing tennis and basketball courts, a 200-meter track, spin room, and an indoor golf practice area, as well as athletic training office. Lake Waban, Nehoiden Golf Course, outdoor tennis courts, and playing fields also provide recreational opportunities, as does the impressive athletic field complex. Wellesley offers 13 varsity sports, competing at the NCAA D-III level, as well as PE classes, student-led classes, fitness programs, sports, and dance. Many students also enjoy working out on their own.

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Hazard Quadrangle or "The Quad"

Pomeroy Hall is best known for being one of the friendliest buildings in the quad.

Connected to Pomeroy through the Link is Cazenove Hall. Beebe Hall has a longstanding tradition of featuring a pirate theme for its social events. Shafer Hall has an amazing game room, equipped with a wide-screen TV and a pool table. Munger Hall, sometimes considered part of the Quad, is best known as headquarters for Marathon Monday poster making.

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Jewett Arts Center houses the Art History Department, Art Library, and student gallery; the Music Department, Music Library, music practice rooms, and Jewett Auditorium, which is used for chamber music performances. The Art and Music libraries provide a great space to study.

Student art and mixed-media projects are always on display, and lunch concerts bring performers from the community and greater Boston area to campus.

The Davis Museum is one of the oldest and most acclaimed academic fine arts museums in the US. Nearly 11,000 works from the Museum collection and special exhibitions include painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, and decorative objects. Spanning global history from ancient times to the present, these works are shown in the ten galleries. The Davis also offers a series of lectures, symposia, concerts, tours, open class sessions, films, video, and site-specific installations.

Pendleton 13 Hall

Pendleton East houses the American Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Education, Environmental Studies, Japanese, Political Science, and Sociology departments. Students and faculty enjoy state-of-the-art classroom and technological facilities, and common study and meeting areas.

Pendleton West provides the setting for Studio Art, a concert salon, as well as historical music instruments and performance classes.

The building provides both visual and musical arts classroom, studio, and rehearsal space for emerging and traditional media. Students enjoy lunchtime lectures and other special events in the Pendleton Atrium.

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Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall

Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall is home to a full-scale concert auditorium that can seat up to 1,300 people. It is used for special events, concerts, and dance performances. The lower level houses Alumnae Ballroom and the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, a flexible black-boxtype space for class performances and experimental projects.

On the first floor is El Table, a student-run co-op sandwich shop where Madeleine K. Albright ’59 once worked. There’s even a sandwich named after her!

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Green Hall, Galen Tower, Suzy Newhouse Center

Green Hall houses numerous classrooms, academic departments (including many foreign languages!), and essential student resources including Career Education, a lifelong service that supports every Wellesley student from the moment she arrives on campus. Its mission is to prepare and inspire every Wellesley woman to craft a lifetime of opportunity and realize her full potential.

The Suzy Newhouse Center for Humanities ensures that this traditionally strong part of the curriculum continues to flourish at Wellesley.

Galen Stone Tower, the focal point of the campus, measures 182 feet from the ground to the highest finial and houses a 30-bell carillon, frequently played by the students of the Wellesley Guild of Carillonneurs.

GREEN HALL GALEN TOWER SUZY NEWHOUSE CENTER

Jewett Arts Center, Collins Cinema, and The Davis Museum

Collins Café and Cinema has excellent food, and the Wellesley Film Society shows free movies every weekend at Collins Cinema, which also hosts multimedia lectures and panel discussions.

Acorns, Harambee House, Slater House, CE House

This network of multicultural spaces allows students to collaborate with and draw strength from those with whom they share a common identity while, at the same time, promoting intercultural dialogue and connection among all members of the Wellesley community.

Students can cook, study, relax, and enjoy friends at each of these houses, which serve as a home-away-from-home for many.

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Founders Hall is the oldest existing academic building on campus and a gift of over 12,000 alumnae. Named for Henry and Pauline Durant, the College’s founders, who requested that no building be named directly for them, it houses the Africana Studies, Classical Studies, English, Greek, Hebrew, French, History, Italian, Jewish Studies, Latin, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Russian, and Women’s and Gender Studies departments.

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The Science Center incorporates all of the science departments including Astronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geosciences, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology, as well as state-of-the-art scientific equipment and an extensive library. Open 24 hours a day, the Science Center is a place that everyone needs to experience. Sage Lounge provides both students and faculty with an open space for gathering and studying, as does the Leaky Beaker Café.

The Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses (with 15 greenhouses) contains 1,000+ plants; nearby are the 22 acres of the Hunnewell Arboretum and Alexandra Botanic Gardens.

Whitin Observatory, which opened in 1899, houses renovated laboratories, classrooms, a darkroom, and the Astronomy Library, as well as research equipment including 6-, 12-, and 24-inch telescopes.

SCIENCE CENTER

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East Campus Residence Halls

Recently renovated Freeman Hall, Bates Hall, and McAfee Hall are known for their excellent accommodations and proximity to the Science Center. They also have their own s’mores firepit. Students love living here for easy access to the commuter rail to Boston and to “the Vil,” the downtown area of the town of Wellesley. They share Bates Dining Hall, well known for its globally themed cuisine.

Illustrations by Alice Butz Moir '48