Photographic views of Eliot House

Built in 1931, Eliot House is a dormitory that is part of Harvard's House system and is a River House. Located along the Charles River near the intersection of Memorial Drive and John F. Kennedy Street (formerly Boylston Street), Eliot House was the third House built with funding from the gift of Edward Stephen Harkness. The House was named for Harvard University President Charles Eliot, who served from 1869 to 1909 and whose portrait hangs in the dining hall. Eliot House was designed by the architectural firm Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbot, and construction cost $3,290,000. The land it was built on was previously occupied by the power plant of the West End Street Railway Company; the land was purchased in 1930 for $370,000, and the plant was demolished.

The House system was established in 1930 by Harvard University President Abbott Lawrence Lowell with the goal of supplementing the students' education with intellectually, culturally, and socially stimulating living environments, as well as creating a sense of community among students. The Houses accommodate between 350 and 500 students, and at the end of their first year, students are assigned to a House, and they live there through the end of their undergraduate career. Each House typically has a dining hall, common rooms, a library, and recreational spaces.

Eliot House consists of a complex of buildings in a hexagonal shape, with the west buildings standing five stories high and the south and east buildings at three stories. A gap in the south side of the complex, along with the lower buildings, allows views of the river and more sun in the dormitory rooms in the winter. Eliot House features a tower and three courtyards: the Forecourt at the entrance of the House, the Great Court in the middle of the buildings, and the Master's Court by the Faculty Dean's (formerly House Master) house. The House accommodates approximately 450 students and has amenities such as a dining hall, library, common rooms, dance and art studio, woodshop, a room containing a grand piano called the Tower Room, and a room for screening movies called the Golden Arm. Eliot House also contains the F. O. Matthiessen Room, named for the first Senior Tutor who was a literature scholar. The room holds Matthiessen's library and manuscripts, as well as the manuscripts of T. S. Eliot, Perry Miller, Theodore Spencer, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams.

The Eliot House shield is derived from the Eliot family coat of arms, consisting of a silver background, a thick horizontal red line through the middle, and two wavy blue lines sandwiching the red line that symbolize the Devonshire and Cornwall branches of the Eliot family. The Eliot House mascot, the elephant, also comes from the Eliot family crest, which features elephants. The House motto is, "Floreat Domus de Eliot," which translates to, "Long Flourish Eliot House." Between the 1930s and 1990s, when students were able to submit House preferences during the House assignment process, Eliot House had a reputation for attracting the social elite, including students from Boston Brahmin society, as well as champion rowers and Rhodes scholars. In the 1990s, Harvard began to randomize House assignments, thus making each house more diverse. Traditions at Eliot House include the Annual Charity Bash, Spring Fête, and the Charles Eliot Dinner.

Notable residents of Eliot House include Leonard Bernstein, Benazir Bhutto, Ben Bradlee, Archibald Cox, John Harbison, Rashida Jones, Ted Kaczynski, Jack Lemmon, Thomas Oliphant, George Plimpton, and Jay Rockefeller. The House also served as the residence of United States Navy officer candidates who were part of the V-12 college training program from 1942 to 1946.