Each semester, we profile a College House, one of the eight houses that make up what some call Bowdoin’s “living rooms.”

The College Houses are all former fraternities that are occupied today by sophomores. Each year first-year students who are interested in hosting campus-wide academic and social events, and shaping the campus culture, apply to live in the houses during their second year here. Then throughout the academic year, house residents organize talks, tastings, debates, and parties in their communal living spaces. They also create special social events just for the first-year affiliates assigned to their house.

This semester, we profile Reed House, on Boody Street. The house, once the home of Alpha Eta of Chi Psi, was dedicated on September 28, 2007, in memory of Thomas Brackett Reed (1839-1902), Class of 1860, a U.S. Representative from Maine and speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.