Duckett House is nearly 200 years old, and during its history it has served as a boarding house for Smith students and as a school for girls. Today it is home to students who boast that Duckett has the best location of all Smith houses. The white frame building has 21 single rooms and eight doubles.The house is named for Eleanor Shipley Duckett, a former professor in the Smith College Department of Classical Languages and Literatures. Mary Ellen Chase, for whom Chase House is named, was Duckett's lifelong companion, and so the adjoining Chase and Duckett Houses were named for these women scholars and teachers.