Table of Contents

Locations

  1. Academic and Administrative

    1. Curtis Hall

      Curtis Hall was constructed in 1893 as a multi-purpose building. The new building, known for some ten years as the Commons building, included the men’s dining room and two or three stores and rooms for students. The dining hall was for many years known as the Dive. In 1904, the building was renamed Curtis Hall for James Otis Curtis, Medford hip builder and Tufts trustee from 1856 to 1890.  

      One of the original purposes of the building and one which has been in continuous use is the Post Office. For many decades, it served the needs of the entire institution as an independent unit, with all mail addressed to ”Tufts College, Massachusetts”. The dining hall was at various times a cooperative enterprise under student management and a private concession. About 1900, a meal ticket good for three meals a day for a full week cost $3.50, prompting student complaints about high prices. During World War I, the main building was a mess hall for members of the Student Army Training Corps unit stationed at Tufts. During World War II, it was a Navy mess hall. The upper floors served as housing for both students and employees, and in the 1950s, four Jackson sororities were assigned rooms in the building.  

      Today, Curtis Hall continues to be used as a multi-purpose building. The US Postal Service maintains an office there and, since 1997, Dining Services has run a coffee house there called  Brown and Brew. Rehearsal space for student performing groups is located in the building as well as offices for the Tufts Daily, the Observer and other student publications, such as the Zamboni. It is also the home of WMFO, Tufts studentrun radio station, and TUTV, the student-run television station. The Center for Engineering Education Outreach and the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-based Modeling are both located there as is the Office of the Protestant Chaplaincy.