Baker College
At Rice, a residential college functions as an extended family. Rice undergraduates are randomly assigned to one of 11 residential colleges so that each college represents a cross-section of the university’s diversity.
Baker College is named for Captain James A. Baker, attorney for university founder William Marsh Rice and the founding chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees. When Rice was murdered by his butler and an unscrupulous attorney in an attempt to steal his fortune, it was Baker’s quick action that saved the university’s endowment and put the conspirators behind bars. In gratitude, the university’s first residential college was named in his honor. The oak-paneled Baker Commons is one of Rice Institute’s four original 1912 buildings.
What’s there: undergraduate student residences, Baker College Commons, Baker Library and Baker College office
Named for: Attorney and founding Rice Institute board chairman James Addison Baker. Captain Baker was the grandfather of Secretary of State James A. Baker III, whose namesake Baker Institute for Public Policy also is on the Rice campus.
Built: 1912, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson (commons, library and ninth-entrance tower); 1915 East Hall addition (entrances 1–3), Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson; 1957 New Wing addition (entrances 4 and 5), Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson; 2010 New New Wing addition (closest to College Way), Hopkins Architects.
Rice Campus Map No. 6