Lambert House
From Willipedia
The blue house on the northeast corner of Walden & Hoxsey streets. Named after Anna Elizabeth Lambert. Exactly 27,654 ft3 and 3,588 ft2, including the basement (which students can't access, but there's nothing interesting there anyway...).
Nominally located at 80 Hoxsey Street:
Comes with a kitchen, a common room (w/fireplace), 8 singles, coffee, wireless access and a porch. Winner of the 2005-2006 "Do it in the dark" energy-saving contest. Once described as "an ideal spot for the Williams socialite." Selected by the 4th group in the Co-Op Draws for the Classes of 2006 and 2007.
Chronology
| 1900 | Built |
| 1969 | Purchased by the college. |
| 1999-2000 | Renovated for the tidy sum of $105,862. |
"Lambert House: Past, Present and Future"
Compiled by Zachary Lamb ’02, 14 wood panels located in the recycling/storage room on the first floor of Lambert House contain numerous undated photos of the house and the Lambert family, along with detailed captions, which are recorded below:
- “Mr. Lambert planted the hedge of honeysuckle bushes along the north and east sides of the lot.”
- “Barbara Lambert’s mother, Anna Elizabeth Lambert, used to dress Barbara in traditional Norwegian costume in honor of her family’s Norwegian heritage.”
- “Barbara Lambert covered the walls of what is now Room 202 with posters of the Beatles. She once saw the Beatles play at Shea Stadium in New York. In 1965. She won the ticket free and got a chance to be on stage briefly.”
- “Occasionally the five Lambert children had to give up their upstairs bedrooms so that the family could rent their rooms to visiting girls from other schools during big farewell weekends.”
- “In 1907 the property was bought and the original house was built by the Smith family. The Smiths and the Washburns, the next family to live in the house, operated the bookstore on Spring Street.”
- “When the Lamberts moved away in 1907, Barbara, who had recently graduated from high school, chose to stay in the area and married Brian Barcomb of North Adams.”
- “In 1969, Mr. Lambert was transferred from the Sprague Electric Plant in North Adams, where he was an engineer, to a Sprague plant in his native state of Maine. In order to receive his pension, he was forced to move the family away from Williamstown and his favorite house here. The Lamberts sold the house to the college to house the new and growing population of women on campus.”
- “The back section of the house was brought from a house on School Street and was joined to the original house in the early years of the twentieth century. The original house ends at the step down next to the upstairs bathroom.”
- “When the Lamberts bought the house in 1959 many of the neighborhood children thought that the house was haunted because of its dark color and because of the old woman who had lived there before them. Mr. Lambert’s first project after buying the house was for the family to scrape and paint the shingles. He chose a silver gray color because it reminded him of the shingle houses on Cape Cod, where the family used to vacation.”
Documents
- Original deed to the property on which Lambert House now stands.
- Document recording the transfer of Lambert House from K. Norm Lambert and Anna Elizabeth Lambert to Williams College, dated March 28, 1969.