page_title: History of the Caltech House System
section_title: Establishment of the South Houses
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Caltech House System / Establishment of the South Houses
caption_attribution_description: English: Ricketts House at the California Institute of Technology
context_page_description: The history of the House System at the California Institute of Technology encompasses both the history of the physical Houses and of the student self-governance and culture associated with them. The Caltech House System currently encompasses eight Houses: four South Houses constructed in 1931, three North Houses constructed in 1960, and Avery House constructed in 1996.
context_section_description: The first four Houses, now known as the South Houses, were constructed in 1931 to enable the goal of housing as many students as possible on campus.  A committee of nine students was appointed to tour the United States, Canada, and Europe to report on student housing and recommend an organization for Caltech's House System.  The students recommended a series of residence halls with no more than 75 students each, divided by separate entries into subgroups of 25 rooms to encourage a close-knit setting, and each having a small dining room with a common kitchen.  The design of the housing system of this type was similar to contemporary efforts at Harvard, at Yale, and at Princeton, with the goal of being a deliberate framework for organizing student life into small communities outside the classroom, rather than being simple dormitories.
  The Houses were designed by architect Gordon Kaufmann based on earlier plans by Bertram Goodhue.  They are designed in a Mediterranean style, with low horizontal buildings centered around six courtyards.  The decorative details of the courtyards give each a distinctive identity.  Multiple locations in the Houses feature decorative capitals depicting scientists, musicians, and sportsmen, which were cast from structural concrete by Caltech alumnus John H. Hood.  These "whimsical depictions of the academic scholar at study, rest, and play" are an example of the emphasis on architecture's role in shaping the residential community.
  Three of the four Houses were named after their donors: Louis D. Ricketts, Robert Roe Blacker, and Joseph B. Dabney; the fourth was funded by several smaller donors and named for Arthur H. Fleming, longtime President of the Caltech Board of Trustees.  The existing fraternities were disbanded, with each moving into one of the four houses: Gnomes occupied Ricketts House, Pharos occupied Blacker House, Gamma Sigma occupied Dabney House, and both Pi Alpha Tau and Sigma Alpha Pi occupied Fleming House.  A small building called the Dugout was constructed near the original dormitory as a lounge for off-campus students; this organized into the Throop Club which effectively acted as a fifth House, even though it did not participate in Rotation.  The fireplace in the Dugout was later saved and integrated into Winnett Student Center when it was constructed in 1962.
  The process of Rotation was established in 1933 to match incoming freshmen into the Houses.  Initially freshmen lived in each House for a short time, but in the 1950s this was changed to students rotating meals in each of the Houses.  The first written Rotation rules were made in 1951, after a scandal in which Dabney House offered freshmen blind dates and cars full of gas for them, and announced its social schedule during Rotation.
  The student government, the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT), has existed since at least 1913; it became an incorporated entity in 1935 after a lawsuit over a publishing contract for the yearbook.  In 1940, the first Master of Student Houses was appointed.  The first annual Interhouse party was held in 1934, and would be held until being banned after 1989, while Ricketts House's Apache Dance was first held in 1947.
caption: Ricketts House courtyard in 1933
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