Hartley Hall

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Hartley is one of the two residence halls that make up the Living Learning Center. It was built in 1904 and is the oldest residence hall on campus.

Jack Kerouac lived here once, and enjoyed it.

History

Hartley Hall, Columbia's first dormitory, celebrated its centennial in 2004, although it did not open to students until 1905. The building was the gift of Helen Hartley Jenkins and her nephew Marcellus Hartley Dodge, two names which would grace the Columbia lexicon repeatedly throughout the twentieth century. Many students bemoan the shocking variance of room size wherein an occupant of a cramped 94-square foot single may find him or herself ten feet away from a 110-square foot single, but there is method to this madness. In Nicholas Murray Butler's day, room size and location depending on the rate one was willing to pay, not a lottery process backed by a flat fee. Yet, President Butler intended for his dormitories to be "in the interest of true democracy," by liberally interspersing larger rooms with smaller ones (and by implication, richer students with poorer ones).

It should also be noted that Hartley, and its twin, Wallach, were dedicated exclusively to undergraduate housing, a rather odd move in the days when Columbia was still considering shutting down the College outright (SEAS, or rather the School of Mines, was still a graduate-and-professional faculty, and a fairly profitable one at that, and thus was spared the budgeter's wrath). In 2000, the Living-Learning Center program began at Hartley and Wallach Halls in what supporters enthusiastically called a genuine attempt to build community and foster student body cohesion, and what detractors cynically label a failed attempt to imitate Yale's residential college model.

Photos

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  Single 5A6, view 1

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  Single 5A6, view 2

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  Single 5A8, view 1

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  Double, view 1

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  Double, view 2

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  Double, view 3

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  Bathroom, view 1

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  Bathroom, view 2

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  Suite lounge, view 1

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  Suite lounge, view 2

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  Staircase (Hartley suites are on 2 levels)

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  The second lounge in the suite

Floor plans

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  Floor 2

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  Floor 3

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  Floor 4

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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

Map

<googlemap lat="40.806466" lon="-73.961785" type="map" zoom="16" width="500" height="300" controls="small"> 40.806466, -73.961785, Hartley residence hall </googlemap>

Significant contributors

• Tao Tan