The Buildings records are part of the larger Buildings and Grounds collection and focus on the College's buildings, both extant and demolished. The vast majority of information in the collection falls between 1875 and the present, though there are a few scattered items from before 1875. The College Archives staff is continually adding new information to the files. This collection interprets the term "building" loosely, and includes information not only about the buildings themselves, but also about what occurred / occurs in the buildings, especially where student residences are concerned. Much of Smith College student life is and long has been centered in the residential houses, and so a buildings file may contain annual group photographs of house residents, student rosters, house government material, and information on house traditions, in addition to the architectural information, ownership history, and photographs of the building itself. The collection also interprets "Smith building" loosely, containing limited information on a number of privately-owned, off-campus boarding-houses. The collection is 117 boxes, not including oversize material. There are thirteen oversize boxes, and four oversize "flat-file" drawers.

A NOTE ON CROSS-REFERENCES AND BUILDING NAMES

Cross-references will be linked. Some buildings have had several names and have separate files for each name (Hover House and Parsons House Annex, for instance). You will find each cross-referenced to the other. In other cases, a building has been known by several names and all the information on that building is under one name. For instance, Look House is cross-referenced to Park House Annex, but Park House Annex is not cross-referenced to Look House, because there is no file on Look House per se. A cross-reference from one building name to another may, but does not always, mean that the two names designate the same building. Northrop House and Gillett House, for instance, are referenced to each other because they were planned and built as a unit of two houses.

It should further be noted that the box list is cross-referenced with This, the House We Live In by Eleanor Terry Lincoln and John Abel Pinto (see the heading "Other Sources" in this finding aid). If you follow a cross-reference and don't find information in 22. Buildings about the specific building or building name you seek, check relevant entries in This, the House as well as the card catalog.