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Sessions House, a grand
colonial house on Elm Street, is the oldest house on campus.
It is also the house with what
may be the most intriguing history, boasting both a secret
passageway and a pair of ghostly lovers.
Built in 1710 by Captain Jonathan Hunt, the house was the first in Northampton to be built outside of the stockade. The staircase was originally designed as a secret passageway used during colonization by the Hunts as a place to hide from Native Americans. It is also said to have been used during the Civil War as part of the Underground Railroad. Yet the most popular house legend is that the staircase was the site of clandestine visits between Captain Hunt's granddaughter, Lucy, and Johnny Burgoyne, a Redcoat held captive in the house during the Revolutionary War. Lucy's and Johnny's ghosts are still said to rendezvous throughout the house in search of one another. Presently it is an annual Halloween tradition for new house members to hunt for the secret staircase. Sessions House is named for Mrs. Ruth Huntington Sessions, who acquired the building at the turn of the century and later opened it to Smith students as housing became scarce. She later bequeathed the home to the college, and it has been used as a residence since 1921.
 Sessions Annex, next door to
Sessions House, was once the White House Inn. It was acquired
by the college
in 1969,
and for a time housed men who were attending Smith on exchange
programs. In 1977, the house was converted into a residence
for women. Since that time, the main house and the annex
have operated as one house unit.
52 students live in the complex, which has 28 single rooms and 12 doubles. Sessions House was fully renovated during the summer of 1996. The main gathering place at Sessions House is the living room and TV room, complete with a large fireplace and many comfortable chairs. The annex has a living room, a small parlor, a sun room, and a piano for all to use. Along with new windows and extensive interior renovations, a 2001 renovation of the annex involved construction of a small addition at the rear of the building, a ramp and other work to make the building more accessible to people with handicaps. Sessions is also wired for CyberSmith.
Sessions House / Kathleen Crowe '99 |
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