Common Ground

Crawford Hall
2119 H Street
Named for William Harris Crawford, a long-time political figure in his native Georgia and a cabinet member under both Presidents Madison and Monroe, Crawford Hall became an active residence hall in 1963. William H. Crawford was Secretary of the Treasury when Monroe signed the charter of GW’s ancestor institution, Columbian College, and may have sat on the platform with Monroe and the rest of his cabinet during the first commencement in 1824. William Harris Crawford generously gave financial support to the College in its early years.

Fulbright Hall
2223 H Street
Senator J. William Fulbright was the GW alumnus and Arkansas Democrat whose congressional resolution in 1943 signaled that body's willingness to have the United States join the world peace organization, later known as the United Nations. Fulbright earned his law degree (LL.B.) from GW in 1934. In 1959, he was attended long-time GW President Cloyd Heck Marvin’s retirement ceremony. On that occasion, Fulbright modestly described himself as a former student and instructor at The George Washington University. Fulbright is best remembered in academe for initiating the program of international student exchanges that bears his name.

Kennedy Onassis Hall
2222 Eye Street
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at GW in 1951. Ten years later, she was was First Lady when her husband, John F. Kennedy, delivered the GW commencement address on May 3, 1961, in the University Yard. Her husband received GW's honorary degree, quipping that it had taken his wife two years to get her degree and "it took me only two minutes, but we are both grateful."

Lafayette Hall
2100 Eye Street
The name of the Marquis de Lafayette is connected to GW in two ways. First, General George Washington regarded Lafayette as his “adopted son.” The two shared wartime experiences and corresponded affectionately throughout their lives. Lafayette's personal connection with GW dates from the school’s first commencement, which he attended on December 15, 1824, at the age of 77. The venerable Marquis shook the hand of each graduate, and wished them—and the institution—the greatest prosperity.

				Madison Hall 736 22nd Street Madison Hall pays tribute to James and Dolley Madison. Madison was a principal architect of the Constitution, the nation’s fourth president, and its first wartime president. Recent historians have come to see Madison as an able chief executive, much underestimated by his political enemies. His reputation for exerting strong and steady presidential leadership, often behind the scenes, has grown with each addition to the scholarship of the early 19th century. His wife, Dolley, has always conveyed the impression of a more forceful and engaging personality. She was much admired in her day, especially for her courage in rescuing White House treasures at the last minute, just before the British burned that building in 1814.

Mitchell Hall
514 19th Street
General "Billy" Mitchell was a junior at the University, a member of the class of 1899, when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898. A wartime dropout, he served with the University's volunteers in that war and returned to his studies after World War I. He completed his Bachelor of Arts requirements at GW in 1919 and received his degree “as of the class of 1899.” Mitchell came to be known as the controversial advocate of air power, without whose dire warning the United States might never have been able to field the world's largest air force in time to fight World War II. In a 1924 report, Mitchell virtually predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Although he never lived to see his ideas of air power being pivotal in military operations, Mitchell was posthumously awarded a special Congressional medal in 1948.

Strong Hall
620 21st Street
The first residence hall built by the University, the Hattie M. Strong Hall for Women was dedicated in 1935. Strong Hall was made a reality after Hattie M. Strong, a Washington resident, gave the University $200,000 for a women's dormitory in December of 1934. She later became a University trustee, and established a financial assistance program for needy students. Her donation in 1934 for a women's residence hall helped realize the vision of then-President Cloyd Heck Marvin of providing an environment where students could live as well as learn.

Thurston Hall
1900 F Street
Mabel Nelson Thurston was the first female undergraduate admitted to the University in 1888. GW's experience with co-education began fitfully in the 1880s with proposals for admitting women to its professional schools. In the case of law, the faculty voted dismissively in 1883 not to admit women on the grounds that women attorneys were "not required by any public want." The following year, however, the medical school admitted four women. After trying for seven years to maintain separate sex medical instruction, the medical faculty reached the point where, they concluded, "the strain on modesty" had become too great, and gave it up. In 1888, however, the University voted to test the waters of coeducation by admitting Mabel Nelson Thurston. From the ripples of that first test, a tidal wave of women has swept across the campus.