Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ashdown House records

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Avery Ashdown was master of "Graduate House" from 1933, when it first opened, until 1962. He continued his close association and friendship with many graduate students as master emeritus. He organized the first on campus graduate residence at the request of President Karl Taylor Compton in the Crafts, Nichols, and Holman dormitories later occupied by undergraduate students on the East Campus. He was instrumental in obtaining and renovating the former Riverside Court Hotel, purchased in 1937 and occupied in 1939. In 1965 graduate students at MIT proposed that the graduate house on Memorial Drive be renamed Ashdown House in honor of Associate Professor Emeritus Avery Allen Ashdown, MIT class of 1924,"a devoted teacher and friend to hundreds of students."

Ashdown House is a residence for graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Formerly Riverside Courts Hotel, it was purchased in 1937 and occupied in 1939. The graduate house was renamed in 1965 in honor of Professor Avery Ashdown, longtime master of the residence.