The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Woodside Cottage

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Woodside Cottage (front facade), Haverford College

Woodside Cottage (detail), Haverford College

Institution Name: Haverford College
Original/Historic Place Name: Reece Thomas Farmhouse
Location on Campus: 2 Walton Rd.
Date(s) of Construction:

1811	original construction
1880	library addition

Designer: unknown
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Regionalist/Vernacular (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, culture, education, history, religion
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: rubble stone

Walls: stucco with clapboard

Roof: asphalt shingle

Function:

ca. 1811	private residence (original farmhouse to the property)
1880-present (2006)	library
ca. 1889	residence hall
ca. 2004-present (2006)	academic department building (English)

Narrative:
Woodside Cottage is the only surviving building on campus that predates the College. It was built in the early decades of the nineteenth century as the farmer's house for the property. After the construction of 6 College Circle as a farmhouse, then-Professor Thomas Chase rented the cottage.
A library addition was added in the 1880s. In 1889 it was converted to use as a student dormitory. It currently houses the English department.

Woodside Cottage is symbolic of the College's early efforts to connect agriculture to the academic world, stressing the equal importance of both.

References:

George E. Thomas Associates, Inc. Haverford College Historic Resources Campus Survey. Philadelphia: George E. Thomas Associates, 1999.
Kammerstein, Gregory, ed. The Spirit and the Intellect: Haverford College, 1833-1983. [Haverford, PA: Haverford College, 1983].