Eliot House

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The Eliot House cupola, from JFK park

Eliot House is one of twelve residential houses for upperclassmen at Harvard University. Opened in 1931, the house was named after Charles William Eliot, who served as president of the university for forty years (1869-1909). The architectural style of Eliot House is typical of Harvard, with red brick construction and vertical entryways with residential rooms branching directly off stairwells. The House's cupola was modelled after the dome of New York City Hall.^{[citation needed]}

The current Masters of Eliot House are Professor Lino Pertile and his wife Anna Bensted.

Famous former residents of the house include Leonard Bernstein, Peter Benchley, Benazir Bhutto, Ben Bradlee, Archibald Cox, John Harbison, Ted Kaczynski, William Kristol, Richard Leacock, Joseph Lelyveld, Jack Lemmon, Thomas Oliphant, George Plimpton, and Jay Rockefeller.

In 1951, roommates of Eliot House A-12 included Paul Matisse, grandson of French impressionist Henri Matisse, Stephen Joyce, grandson of novelist James Joyce, and Sadruddin Aga Khan, lineal descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This caused master John Finley to brag to the New York Times, "where else would you find, in one room, the grandson of Matisse, the grandson of Joyce, and the great-great-great-great-grandson of God?"^[1]

Before Harvard opted to use a lottery system to assign residences to upperclassmen, Eliot was known as a 'prep' house, providing accommodation to the university's social elite. Vestiges of this remain in traditions like the spring formal, the Eliot Fête, and the house remains especially well-endowed, although Harvard no longer permits donors to fund individual houses.