Committee recommends maintaining name of Winthrop House, adding historical context
Campus & Community Committee recommends maintaining name of Winthrop House, adding historical context Winthrop House.Photo by Grace DuVal July 17, 2025 4 min read Garber, Hoekstra accept review panel’s proposal The Review Committee assigned to consider the request from petitioners to dename the John Winthrop House has delivered its report to Harvard President Alan Garber and Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Hopi Hoekstra. Garber and Hoekstra have accepted the committee’s recommendation to maintain the “Winthrop” name and remove the name “John,” so that, going forward, the undergraduate residential House will be known formally as Winthrop House. In the report, the Review Committee details the history of the John Winthrop name and the considerations included in the denaming request. Incorporated in 1931, the House was named after Professor John Winthrop (1714-1779), the second Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy and twice the interim president of Harvard. Archival records reviewed by the...