Burdett Avenue Residence Hall

Accommodations

The Burdett Avenue Residence Hall (BARH) is located at 2122 Burdett Ave in Troy, NY. It has four wings, A, B, C, and D, with four floors. The rooms are suite style, with shared in room bathrooms in single, double and triple options. Additionally, there is a dining hall open to all meal plan students located on the first floor of the building (1).

History

Construction on BARH began on November 18, 1964 with a groundbreaking ceremony by then President Folsom. It was built by the New York State Dormitory Authority for leasing to RPI with completion originally slated for February 1966. The project cost $1,802,000 (~$17,141,929.29 today) with $1,548,000 (~$14,725,697.31 today) for the building itself and $254,000 (~$2,416,231.99 today) for construction fees, landscaping and furnishings. The building itself was made of concrete and brick veneer intended to house 218 students with kitchen facilities and lounge areas within each of its four wings. With the number of female students rising each year, 76 total women enrolled at the time of the announcement and 23 in the freshmen class alone, one wing was to be dedicated to female students (2). The previous construction timeline as long as other construction projects on campus, by several months due to strikes by the construction workers (3). BARH officially opened for residents for the Fall 1966 semester (4).

Postcard of BARH

Significance

Prior to the building of BARH, women did not have the ability to live on RPI campus as all the dorms were designated for male only or married student housing. Non-local women instead were housed at Russell Sage College, according to an agreement made between Russell Sage College and RPI in September 1961 (5). While Russell Sage College is close to the RPI campus, most students would need to walk everyday to make it to class. At the time, Russell Sage College also imposed their strict living regulations on the RPI students, including curfews which prevented many from being active in evening clubs on campus. Shortly after this, there was a call for on campus living accommodations for women and in December 1964 it was announced in the Rensselaer Polytechnic newspaper that a new building was to be constructed on the east side of campus, which would become BARH (2). In student accounts, RPI proved to be lagging behind other institutions' perspectives on women and the addition of the women’s wing at BARH worked to change these attitude (6).

References

(1) “Student Living and Learning.” Burdett Avenue Residence Hall | Student Living and Learning. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://sll.rpi.edu/buildings/burdett-avenue-residence-hall.

(2) “Construction Started on Multi-Use Dorms.” The Rensselaer Polytechnic, December 9, 1964, v.85, no.10.

(3) “Construction delayed by strike.” The Rensselaer Polytechnic, September 22, 1965 v.86, no.1.

(4) “Autumn reflects changes.” The Rensselaer Polytechnic, September 21, 1966, v.87, no.1.

(5) Pelton, Sherry. “The Rensselaer Coeds.” The Rensselaer Polytechnic, March 20, 1963, v.83, no.19.

(6) “Leadership since…”The Rensselaer Polytechnic, October 20, 1965, v86, no.5.,