Haviland Hall
2112 State Avenue

First constructed in 1958, this tall, spacious five-story brick building was named for Dorothy Haviland, a well-respected and much-loved professor who specialized in Elizabethan literature. In honor of her particular area of interest, the lobby of the building is decorated with playful statuettes of the more colorful characters from Professor Haviland's favorite play, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck and Oberon, Titania with her retinue of fairies, and of course Bottom (with an ass' head) surrounded by his deeply terrified fellow players. The walls bear several quotes from a variety of plays, stories and sonnets of the era, all in gilded letters, the most prominent above the grand front door of the building: "O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!"

As might be expected, Haviland Hall is home to the Department of English, as well as the Department of Classical Studies and Languages, the Department of Communications, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Religion. The offices of the Department of Computer Science are also housed within this building, though there is only one computer lab on the first floor and many of the actual classes meet elsewhere. In recognition of the building's namesake, the Department of English is frequently given preference in terms of office space and classroom assignments.

There are two legends of note surrounding this building. The first has to do with the statuettes in the lobby, which -- according to rumor -- are mystically connected to the genuine Good Folk, attracting their attention and frequently causing fairy lights and strange sounds to be made manifest within the halls. Some students even claim that, under the right circumstances, the statuettes can be used to deliberately call the Good Folk forth, and the lobby can even be used as a portal to the mystical realms. There is even a highly apocryphal tale which claims that an English student vanished from the lobby in the 1960s after offering herself to the fairies as a joke, and the school promptly covered the whole thing up, instituting a code of silence within the lobby. While loud conversation and horseplay in that area of the building is frowned upon, this officially has more to do with the classes meeting nearby than any alleged mystical properties of the building.

The other major rumor surrounding this building has less to do with the structure itself and more to do with the woman who gave her name to it. Haviland Hall has been renovated frequently since its construction, more so than nearly any other academic building on campus, and many students claim that this is due to the influence of Dorothy Haviland herself, who reportedly appears to the President of the University whenever the building grows too crowded, following him or her and glaring accusingly until the administration gets its act together and orders a new round of renovations and expansions. Naturally, no President has ever personally reported any such incident, but the administration's gears do turn awfully quickly where Haviland Hall is concerned.