Cabot House
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| Cabot House | ||||||||||||||||
| Harvard College | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Thomas and Virginia Cabot House | |||||||||||||||
| Latin Name | Domus Capoceus | |||||||||||||||
| Motto | Tres Pisces—Cor Unum | |||||||||||||||
| Translation | Three Fish—One Heart | |||||||||||||||
| Named after | Thomas and Virginia Cabot | |||||||||||||||
| Previous Names | South House, East House | |||||||||||||||
| Established | 1901 | |||||||||||||||
| Sister College | Trumbull College | |||||||||||||||
| House Master | Jay and Cheryl Harris | |||||||||||||||
| HoCo Chairs | Nate Bernhard '07 and Daniel Gonzalez-Kreisberg '07 | |||||||||||||||
| Undergraduates | 358 | |||||||||||||||
| Called | Cabotians, Cabotoix | |||||||||||||||
| Tutors | 18 | |||||||||||||||
| Location | 60 Linnaean Street | |||||||||||||||
| http://www.cabot.harvard.edu | ||||||||||||||||
Cabot House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. A conglomoration of what was South and East House, the name was changed and the House reincorporated in 1984 to honor Harvard benefactors Thomas Cabot and Virginia Cabot. The house is composed of six buildings surrounding Radcliffe Quadrangle; in order of construction, they are Bertram Hall (1901), Eliot Hall (1906), Whitman Hall (1911), Barnard Hall (1912), Briggs Hall (1923), and Cabot Hall (1937). All six of these structures were originally women-only Radcliffe College dormitories until they were integrated in 1970. Along with Currier House and Pforzheimer House, Cabot is part of the Quad.
The current Masters of Cabot House are Jay Harris and his wife Cheryl.
Famous alumni include Umberto Eco, Benazir Bhutto, Stockard Channing, Lindsay Crouse, Rivers Cuomo, Greg Daniels, Jim Koch, Ellen Goodman, Soledad O'Brien, Nichele McClendon, Bonnie Raitt, Mira Sorvino, Jeffrey Sachs, and Edward Zwick.
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[edit] History
[edit] The Great Experiment
[edit] Shield
The Cabot House shield was adopted when South and East House became Cabot House, in 1984. The shield is the coat of arms used by the Boston Brahmin Cabots after whom the House is named, though, ironically, the shield is not truly their heraldic achievement; the coat of arms actually belongs to the French family Chabot, to whom the Boston Cabots have no relation.
Cabotoix have a unique affection for their shield, its red fish (freshwater perch, or chabots) in particular. They are the inspiration for the common House cheer, "Go Fish!"—a play on the popular card game. Cabotoix feature their coat of arms on various apparel, including polo shirts, rugby shirts, and hooded sweatshirts. The standard coloration is used, or its inverse, as in the shield shown in the infobox accompanying this article (at right). A variation incorporating a white chevron, is also used; the chevron is a reference to the Harvard College shield, which is crimson with a white chevron.
The House Office also has an antique copy of the Cabot Shield which had been hanging in the dining hall before the renovations. Oddly, this shield's colors are drastically different, although the shield still features the same general design and motto: the field is black and the perch are silver, and the crest is a white scallop shell. While the origin of this scheme is unknown, it is interesting to note that these colors are identical to those of Trumbull College, Cabot's sister House at Yale.
The standard arms are described heraldically as follows: field, or, with three chabots, gules.
[edit] Motto
The Cabot family motto is 'Semper Cor' or 'Semper Corcabut,' roughly translating to 'Always Heart.' The Cabot House motto is slightly different, though related to the family motto: 'Tres Pisces, Cor Unum,' or 'Three Fish, One Heart.' The motto refers to the three perch on the Cabot Shield and to the strong sense of community and pride within the House.
According to legend, this motto was recovered from a version of the Cabot shield found in the stern of a merchant ship which ran aground in Nantucket during the Great Storm of 1788. Harvard graduate William Thomas Smith '74 was a planter on the island and discovered the marrooned ship; the crew had evidently been lost in the storm. A native of Quincy, Mass., Smith recognized the Cabot family arms and presumed that the ship belonged to George Cabot, the wealthy merchant (and Brahmin patriarch) and renowned Federalist politician and U.S. Senator. Upon Smith's death in 1828, he willed his collection of engravings to his alma mater—including the shield carving. When the House was renamed in 1984, the carving was transferred from the University collections to the House; it resides currently in the House vault.
[edit] Colors
The House colours, red and gold, are derived from the House shield; black is a kind of unofficial color, featured in much House apparel. The Cabot House academic scarf featuring the House colors is, by coincidence, identical to that of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge; they have no affiliation.
[edit] Traditions
Cabot House, above all, is known for its extremely strong sense of community and camaraderie. The unique features of the House and its unusual traditions in particular contribute to Cabot's well-known espirit de corps.
[edit] The Dining Hall
Cabot's Dining Hall is very different from those at the River. Unlike other House Dining Halls, Cabot's is not enormous, paneled in mahogany and decorated with oil paintings, marble busts, and medieval tapestries. Some might see this as a comparative deficit, but in reality, it is considered one of the House's greatest assets. The dining hall—completed during the 1987 renovations of the Quad, replacing what is now the JCR as the House's cafeteria—is an intimate and bright space. Located beneath the Moors Hall (Pforzheimer House) terrace, the three-tiered room is painted white, its floors carpeted; as the long wall facing the Quad is almost entirely glass, it is bathed in natural light throughout the day. The servery likewise is bright and airy, with knotty pine walls and earthenware tile floors. It is one of the most recently renovated House serveries, completed in 2002.
More than serving merely as the House cafeteria, the Dining Hall is the center of House activity. Aside from being the site of hours-long, social dinners, each evening the Dining Hall fills with students who work together on problem sets and projects for various subjects. The sunken-in eating area on the outside of the dining hall, known as The Dugout, is also a popular gathering place for undergraduates to drink beer and socialize.
[edit] Stein Club
Cabot House Stein Club is the Junior Common Room beer-appreciation society to which every member of the Junior Common Room (that is, all House residents) automatically belongs. Every other Thursday evening throughout the school year, Stein Club meets in one of Cabot's six Living Rooms, usually in Briggs or Barnard Hall.
