Mark Hopkins House

Mark Hopkins house, named after Mark Hopkins, is the largest of the four houses in the Greylock Quad, because it has four "vertical entries" (A, B, C, and D) while the others have only three.

For floor plans, see WSO's Mark Hopkins page. For Williams College Buildings and Grounds listing and a photograph, see here.

Architecture

All five buildings in the Greylock Quad were designed by The Architects Collaborative, and were built in 1965. The building's main elements are brick, slate, and wood.

Accommodations

Virtually all the rooms are singles, and thus they are all either identical to or mirror images of the same design. Corner rooms on the extreme ends of the hall facing the quad (A21, A22, D21, D22, and the same for 31, 32 and 41, 42) are about four feet longer than this identical plan.

In this plan, each room has two plaster walls, one brick wall, and one wall that is just one big window (see below), facing either the quad, Route 2, or Route 7.There is an open closet, i.e. without doors, with a shelf on top. Opposite the closet is a chest of drawers with a mirror above it. There is also a desk and chair, a small bookcase, and a bed. There is one ceiling light in the middle of the room attached to the wall switch, and one light above the bed.

Mark Hopkins is composed of suites, where six students share a common room and a bathroom with one toilet, one shower, and two sinks. Common rooms tend to have two couches and a coffee table with a TV in one corner. The C entry has an additional small room that is not big enough for a couch, but fits a microwave and a refrigerator and perhaps a small chair.

Floors two, three, and four (which are one, two, and three flights up, respectively) follow this general rule; the basement is different. It houses four students in a sort of apartment, and it has the kitchen and common room for the dorm, as well as the recycling and garbage room and the laundry room. The kitchen is not stocked with cooking tools, so it is generally hit-and-miss. There is a dining table and a common room with couches and a piano.

The windows

The window has thick shades, which keep out a lot of the cold, and the heater for the room is under the window. The window is composed of one large window in the middle, and two smaller windows on each side, the lower of which can be opened for circulation. If you take the screen out, it is possible to get in through this window.

Rearrranging your room

When you first enter the room, the bed will be against the wall with the closet, and the desk will be against the wall with the dresser. A good way to reorganize the furniture is to put the desk where the bed is, under the light, and put the bed against the window. In this arrangement, it would be theoretically possible to put in a chair where the bed used to be.

Inhabitants

Mark Hopkins House, along with Bryant House, generally has the reputation of being the less partying of the four Greylock dorms. Thus, on average, Mark Hopkins rooms tend to be quieter than other Greylock rooms, especially on the Route 7 side away from the quad.

Mostly sophomores and juniors live in Mark Hopkins. Occasionally seniors who want to live together will pick in also.