Skip to navigation content (Press Enter).

Information On Alumni House

The President's Residence in Summer

Alumni House
(formerly known as the President's Residence),
est. 1930

Alumni House was formerly known as the President's Residence. It was built in 1930 at an original estimated cost of $30,000.

Graduates of the 1930s knew the President's Residence as the Chancellor's Residence. For almost all of the 1940s, the Chancellor's Residence was temporarily renamed Wallingford Annex and served as a dormitory for fifteen or so “freshettes”.

The first person to occupy the house in 1933 was Chancellor Howard Primrose Whidden. George Peel Gilmour followed him in 1941. In 1949, George P. Gilmour became both President and Chancellor, and in 1950, his title changed to President and Vice-Chancellor. From that time onward, there was a Chancellor as well as a President and Vice-Chancellor. President Gilmour was succeeded in 1961 by Henry G. Thode, followed by Arthur N. Bourns in 1972, Alvin A. Lee in 1980, Geraldine A. Kenney-Wallace in 1990, Peter J. George in 1995, and Patrick Deane in 2010.

Seated on extensive private grounds immediately adjacent to the Cootes Paradise ravine, the House is frequently visited by deer and other animals from the nature preserve.

The Office of Alumni Advancement moved into the second floor of the building in June 2003.