The main campus is located next to Harvard Square in central
Cambridge, approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the MIT campus. Virtually all undergraduates live on campus. First-year students live in
dormitories in or near Harvard Yard. Upperclass students live in twelve
residential Houses, which serve as administrative units of the College as well as dormitories.Nine of the Houses are situated along or close to the northern banks of the Charles River and so are known colloquially as the River Houses. These are:
- Adams House [3] , named for several alumni of that name, including U. S.
President John Adams;
- Dunster House, named for Harvard's first President, Henry Dunster;
- Eliot House [4] , named for Harvard President Charles William Eliot;
- Kirkland House, named for Harvard President John Thornton Kirkland;
- Leverett House [5] , named for Harvard President John Leverett;
- Lowell House [6] , said to be named for the Harvard-affiliated Lowell family in general (but the most obvious reference is to Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard's President at the time of its
construction);
- Mather House [7] , named for Harvard President Increase Mather;
- Quincy House [8] , named for Harvard President (and sometime mayor of
Boston) Josiah Quincy III;
- Winthrop House [9] , more officially called John Winthrop House,
named for two famous men of that name: Massachusetts
Bay Colony founder John Winthrop and his great-great-great-grandson
John Winthrop, 2nd Hollis Professor of
Mathematicks (sic ) and Natural Philosophy
The remainder of the residential Houses are located around Radcliffe Quadrangle (or "the Quad"), half a mile (800 m) northwest
of Harvard Yard. These housed Radcliffe College students until
Radcliffe merged its residential system with Harvard. They are:
- Cabot House [10] , previously called South House, renamed in 1983 for
Harvard donors Thomas Dudley Cabot and Virginia Cabot;
- Currier House [11] , named for Radcliffe alumna Audrey Bruce Currier;
- Pforzheimer House [12] , often called PfoHo for short, previously called
North House, renamed in 1995 for Harvard donors Carl and Carol Pforzheimer
There is a thirteenth House,
Dudley House , which is nonresidential but fulfills, for some graduate
students and off-campus undergraduates including members of the
Dudley Co-op , the same administrative and social functions as the
residential Houses do for undergraduates who live on campus. It is named after Thomas Dudley, who signed the charter of Harvard College when he was Governor of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony.Harvard's residential houses are paired with Yale's residential
colleges in sister relationships; see the Harvard-Yale sister colleges article for more information.The Medical School, the Business School, and the university
stadium and some other athletic facilities are located across the Charles River in Boston. Harvard has recently acquired more land in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and is
planning to move more of its facilities there.