Peterborough Street Houses, 1907-1936
Files
Citation
“Peterborough Street Houses, 1907-1936,” Buildings@Simmons, accessed March 15, 2026, https://beatleyweb.simmons.edu/buildings/items/show/152.
Geolocation
Title
Peterborough Street Houses, 1907-1936
Subject
Peterborough House (Boston, Mass.)
Description
Two adjoining houses on Peterborough Street were leased as dormitories in 1907, with a door cut between them. Two more houses were leased on Peterborough Street the following year, and students in these houses received a rebate on their board in exchange for helping to maintain the dorms. Two more houses were leased on Peterborough Street for student use in 1912, completing the College’s hold of the block's six houses.
The block of Peterborough Street houses, which could house 85 students, was officially purchased in 1914; renovations began soon after. Electric lighting was introduced to the wooden houses in 1916.
The College received several complaints from parents in the early 1920s about the Peterborough neighborhood, which was seen as unfit for young women to live in. During the February 1925 Corporation meeting, President Lefavour reported that the Peterborough neighborhood had ‘changed completely’ over the past eleven years; the College soon decided that it would no longer use the residences as undergraduate dormitories.
From 1925 until the end of the 1932 academic year, the No. 22-32 Peterborough houses were reserved primarily for Simmons graduate students; many of them were from the Prince School of Education for Store Service. Although the Treasurer was granted formal approval to sell the Peterborough houses in October 1931, they were not sold until the latter half of the Great Depression in 1936.
The block of Peterborough Street houses, which could house 85 students, was officially purchased in 1914; renovations began soon after. Electric lighting was introduced to the wooden houses in 1916.
The College received several complaints from parents in the early 1920s about the Peterborough neighborhood, which was seen as unfit for young women to live in. During the February 1925 Corporation meeting, President Lefavour reported that the Peterborough neighborhood had ‘changed completely’ over the past eleven years; the College soon decided that it would no longer use the residences as undergraduate dormitories.
From 1925 until the end of the 1932 academic year, the No. 22-32 Peterborough houses were reserved primarily for Simmons graduate students; many of them were from the Prince School of Education for Store Service. Although the Treasurer was granted formal approval to sell the Peterborough houses in October 1931, they were not sold until the latter half of the Great Depression in 1936.
Date
1907-1936