Noyes House

Opened in 1958 and designed by Eero Saarinen, the Emma Hartman Noyes House was the last dormitory to be built on the Vassar campus. It curves around one-quarter of the grass circle that has been used for recreation since the early years of the college. Noyes Circle has seen everything from horse-back riding and tennis to Founder's Day picnics and a "nude-in" by students in the early seventies. Noyes residents are proud of their Jetsons-style lounge. Among other things, the lounge (with its sunken conversation pit) was used as a theater-in-the-round for dramatic productions and as a "passion-pit" in the days when Vassar girls needed a place to take suitors after dates.