International House
An Enduring Concept, Though Not an Enduring Place
The International House (or I-House) was a living-learning community that had several locations in its years of operation. It was established at this site on campus in the old President’s home (Griffith House) in 1974. Interestingly, that building itself had been moved once before in the Spring of 1954 to make way for the Fine Arts Building, and would move once again in 1984 to make way for Mabee Hall.
The original International House project was led by Robert and Maureen Hoffert. Robert worked as a Political Science professor at Southwestern, and Maureen became the resident director of the house due to her academic background in Comparative Governments and International Relations.
The I-House served as a community space for the International Club, which consisted of international students and local students interested in global affairs. Due to the limited population of international students on campus at the time, the early events hosted were mostly focused on local students sharing their experiences abroad. However, as the program grew and the number of international students on campus increased, the events shifted more towards international students sharing aspects of their cultures with the wider campus community.
For example, in the Spring of 1979, there was an event hosted by Taka Nakamura, an I-House resident from Zushi City in Japan, where she illustrated traditional and contemporary Japanese culture through a presentation of magazines and newspaper articles, accompanied by a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
The I-House was on campus from 1974-1985. In 1985, it was moved off-campus, across University from this location, where it was until it burned down in 1987. From 1994-2003, the concept of the I-House was later resurrected -- not with a separate building but with a wing of Mabee Hall, the Hall located where this building once stood.
The unique culture of the original I-House was bolstered by the fact that it was the first co-educational dorm on campus. This was something noted throughout its existence. For instance, in an article from The Megaphone in 1974, residents praised this aspect of the space as it created a more realistic representation of communal and co-ed living, a sharp contrast to the single-gender dorms that made up the majority of campus housing at the time.
Due to its success, other co-ed living spaces started getting implemented on campus. The second co-ed living space was Herman Brown in 1976. The University also has had several iterations of the “living-learning community” since, but it all started (for Southwestern, at least) with the I-House.
