John Jay Hall

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John Jay is a first year residence hall. The building is located at the corner of 114th St and Amsterdam, with its entrance on the campus side.

Not to be pronounced Juan Jé or John Jizzle.

Residents of John Jay 5 (the lowest floor with residents) are legendary for their refusal to take the stairs, even though this only exacerbates the elevator problem.

History

A John Jay room in the 1920s

John Jay Hall was one of the last McKim, Mead, and White creations, built in 1927. It was not the first John Jay Hall. Previously, Columbia had purchased a group of four apartment buildings in the surrounding area, one of which was named John Jay Hall; later it was revised to Charles King Hall. The present John Jay Hall was originally called "Students Hall" and sought to become a "grand university commons" that would combined student quarters with dining facilities and club rooms. The fourteenth floor was a men's infirmary. Before Lerner Hall, and Ferris Booth Hall before that, the space now taken up by Health Services was Columbia's student center. Even the Columbia Spectator had offices there. With almost three decades of Columbia campus planning experience, McKim, Mead, and White planned John Jay Hall down to the last detail. Johnson (now Wien) Hall had been completed just two years earlier to house female graduate students. In keeping with John Jay's mission of housing male students, the wood paneling, massive fireplace, opulent dining hall, were all carefully selected and designed to create a more "masculine" feel.

Students often wonder why John Jay Hall, exclusively freshman housing, would consist of all singles, when singles are the exception, rather than the rule, at any other university. The answer is that Columbia's priorities up until the last decade were heavily tilted in favor of its graduate and professional schools. John Jay was never meant to house just undergraduates, to say nothing of first-years. The author's father's PhD advisor attended Columbia's School of Engineering in 1947 and distinctively remembers living on John Jay 11. He also remembers a place in the basement of John Jay, then the Lion's Den, now JJ's Place, that served some wonderful fried chicken (and beer!) that one could get at any hour of the night. He also remembers uncooperative elevators (because the elevator operators went on strike). Some things never change.

But most do. The twentieth century witnessed an epic struggle between Columbia College and the graduate and professional faculties for control of John Jay Hall. As late as 1965, the College winning yet another floor from the graduate and professional schools (one of which was SEAS), was enough to make front-page news in the Spectator. By the 1980s and 1990s, as Columbia was beginning to refocus on its undergraduate education, the battle was finally over as the South Field dormitories were set aside for first-year housing.

Facilities

Floors

• Floor 4: administrative offices for Health Services.
• Floors 5-?: residential floors

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Residents live in the same building as John Jay Dining Hall and JJ's Place, so they don't have to go outside during the winter or inclement weather to use up their meal plan or get other food.
• Also in the same building as Health Services in case you fall sick.
• Hamilton Hall is merely a minute's walk away.
• Beautiful spacious lounge on first floor, with a piano where you can practice.
• Singles as a first-year, almost unheard of at most colleges.
• Connected to Wallach and Hartley, so you can use their computer lab and laundry room (when John Jay's is full) without going outside.
• Nice floor lounges.
• Beautiful campus views from rooms on the higher floors facing campus.
• Some of the rooms have nice views of St. John the Divine and the Empire State Building as well.

Disadvantages

• The 2 elevators are abysmally slow, if they're running.
• Somewhat run down, especially the bathrooms.

Photos

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  A single

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  Single 2, view 1

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  Single 2, view 2

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  View from a north-facing single

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  Floor bathroom

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  Floor lounge

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  Main lounge on ground floor

Floor plans

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  Floor 5

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  Floor 6

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  Floor 7

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  Floor 8

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  Floor 9

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  Floor 10

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  Floor 11

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  Floor 12

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  Floor 13

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  Floor 14

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  Floor 15

Map

<googlemap lat="40.805851" lon="-73.962522" type="map" zoom="16" width="500" height="300" controls="small"> 40.805851, -73.962522, John Jay residence hall </googlemap>

Significant contributors

• Tao Tan

See also

Housing: John Jay