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Thompson Hall

Revision as of 22:49, May 6, 2008 by 10ac (talk | contribs) (Thompson 2nd Floor)
Thompson Hall
Neighborhood: Dodd
Occupancy: 31 (19 singles, 6 doubles)
Common areas: 3rd floor balcony +
2 common rooms w/ fireplaces +
1 sketchy pool room
Kitchen? full kitchen
Laundry: 2 washers, 2 dryers
Bathrooms: 14? toilets
10? sinks
7 showers
0 urinals
0 tubs
Vending: Coke machine
Built: ?
Renovated: 1980s

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Also known as the Old Infirmary, or Old I for short, Thompson Hall is a dormitory located north of Mission Park, at the intersection of Park Street and Lynde Lane. It features spacious rooms and other desirable features such as a relatively nice kitchen, a pool table in the basement, working fireplaces in the first and second floor common rooms, a large wooden balcony accessible from the third floor, and wide, sociable hallways.

Contents

Thompson 1st Floor

Thompson 106 is a good double (’06-’07) and will be a fantastic single (’07-’08). The floor plan can be a bit misleading because the lines are quite faint; the room is actually L shaped, not a large rectangle. Despite this deceptive image, it is still quite large and has 2 very large closets. In addition, it shares a large bathroom with only rooms 108 and 104. Though the room is right down the hall from the common space, it is still very quiet even during the noisiest of parties because several doors separate it off from kitchen/living room area.

There are a few funny projections in the wall that were pillars when the room used to be a porch, including indentations in the corners, which can make furniture placement somewhat difficult. An additional challenge is that there is several inch thick molding around the floor, preventing anything from going flush against the wall. As a double, these structural features are fairly limiting on your room arrangement (for example, I think it is impossible for the beds to not be parallel to one another), but with a little bit of creativity you can get quite a nice set up.

The room used to be a porch when Thompson was an infirmary, so there is not very much insulation to the outside (i.e. the brick wall you see on the inside is the same one you see on the outside and there is no foundation). This can lead to the room getting a bit chilly at times during the winter and though the radiator does have a self-controlling feature, we’re not that sure how accurate it is. The 5 large windows provide a lot of light, but at the same time they will add to the coldness when it is windy as you can sometimes feel a breeze coming through them. Overall, the temperature is only a real issue on the very coldest days of the winter.

It is a very nice room in a fantastic house, so I highly recommend it!

Residents: 06-07 Emily Behrman and Mimi Lou

Thompson 2nd Floor

  • Thompson 213 - it's a tiny, narrow room next to the bathroom, but it's a really good deal for a sophomore in Dodd. Sharing a wall with the bathroom isn't as awful as you might think it is. There's a nice view from the window too.

Thompson 3rd Floor

The third floor of Thompson Hall is comprised of a wide hallway, two bathrooms, an elevator, and six single rooms. The floor's lack of common space is made up for by a large balcony accessible from the hallway. Its distance from the laundry room in the basement is also made up for by a functioning elevator, although the wisdom of using said elevator was called into question in the winter of 2003-2004, when the elevator refused to open, trapping Broderick Dunn '04 (a resident of the third floor) inside. After a tense hour-and-a-half standoff, involving several security officers, a crowbar, and an electrician who had to be paged from North Adams, Broderick was finally rescued.

In past years, (2003 and earlier) the porch has been outfitted with a makeshift hot-tub. This is accomplished by running a heavy-duty hose from the sink in the bathroom adjacent to Thompson 313, along the hallway, and out to the porch. The hose is then placed in an inflatable pool (an electric air pump is recommended). In winter months, the steam from the tub forms tiny snowflakes which fall back into the tub.

Thompson 3rd Floor on WSO/plans

Thompson 302

Thompson 302 is a sunny, spacious single which, along with Thompson 313, is adjacent to the Thompson Hall balcony. Its many strangely-shaped nooks and crannies make for an interesting exercise in creative furniture arrangement, but also provide the room with refreshing character. The room's location at the southwest corner of the building means that it gets quite a bit of sunlight, especially in the afternoon. There is also a large maple direrctly outside the room's western window which is quite stunning in the fall and spring.

Current resident: Daniel Rooney '06. Past residents include:

Thompson 303

Probably one of the smallest singles (but still larger than your normal Greylock single) in the dorm, Thompson 303 may be a slight disappointment to the senior envisioning a room complete with a big screen TV and a double twin bed. However with some creative ideas and a little jerry-rigging the room can become a great space. As with the other rooms on the west side of the house, sunlight doesn't come in until the afternoon, so expect to use an artificial light source. The room’s biggest downfall and the cause of its small size is a huge section that juts from the wall next to the door and is covered on one side by a painted wooden board. It's a huge eyesore and whatever's behind it hums like crazy when the air vent in the kitchen is on. Otherwise, it's a pretty nice room in a great location. Full carpet, no closet, door slams.

Current resident: LaVonna Bowen '06. Past residents include: Grey S. Maggiano '03

Thompson 304

Thompson 306

Another large corner room in Thompson. unlike the other two corner rooms that face Mission, 306 is slightly smaller. However, it does feature a large closet, so you don't have a large wardrobe taking up space. The floorplan on GetARoom is wrong, the closet is on the wall touching the hallway. It is also the only room on the floor not to have carpeting, although in 07'-'08 it featured deluxe astroturf, courtesy of the theature department dumpster. The smaller north facing balcony of thompson is accessible through the window, although it is a pain and a many branches from a nearby pine tree (pinus strobus, for you botany kids) hang all over it. Technically it's structurally unstable. It's superannoying that the college just didn't fix it a put a door out onto it, because it would be kick-ass if it was fixed up a litte.

Thompson 308

Thompson 313

Thompson 313

Thompson 313 is a spacious single on the southeast corner of Thompson, adjacent to the famous Thompson Hall balcony. The room has two windows, but one of them only opens partially; nonetheless, it opens wide enough to run a power cable out to the balcony, which is handy if you ever throw a shindig out there and need music, lighting, or refrigeration. The room gets decent sunlight in the morning, and that light is filtered by the pine trees just outside the dorm. One nice thing about the room is that its door, unlike most doors in Thompson and elsewhere, does not slam shut, so that you can leave the door open without a wedge, cement block, or other makeshift doorstop. The floor of the room is carpeted wall to wall. There is no closet.

The room is currently occupied by Steve Melis '08. Previous residents include: