Housing for Women at MIT
After MIT's move from Boston to Cambridge in 1916, the student population continued growing, requiring more housing for nonlocal students. Senior House, East Campus, and Bexley Hall were constructed between 1916 and 1939 for male students to live on campus, although many students still lived off campus. MIT became a more residential campus after World War II, when the Institute established Baker House and Burton Conner in 1949 and 1950.
In 1938, The Cleofan approached the Institute with the suggestion of women’s housing, and in 1945, the Women’s Dormitory opened at 120 Bay State Road in Boston opened, providing supervised housing to a maximum of 20 women. Located a little over a mile from MIT, the off-campus dorm was on the same block of brownstones as MIT’s fraternity houses. Katharine donated money to a “taxi fund” to help students get to campus from the dormitory (about a 30-minute walk) during bad weather to ensure they were able to attend classes.
Women students who did not live in the dormitory were only permitted to live with family or in approved housing where they were chaperoned by adult women. This limited housing opportunities for women students, adding another barrier to enrollment for women
