University of Notre Dame residence halls
There are 33 undergraduate residence halls at the University of Notre Dame as of 2025 including 17 male halls, 15 female halls, and one mixed community. Several of the halls are historic buildings which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Residence halls are the center of the student life and some academic teaching; most students stay at the same hall for most of their undergraduate studies. Each hall has its own traditions, events, mascot, sports teams, shield, motto, and dorm pride. The university also hosts Old College, an undergraduate residence for students preparing for the priesthood.
Notre Dame's undergraduate hall system has elements of a residential college system. All first-year students are placed in one of the 32 halls upon enrollment, and students rarely switch halls. Each hall has its own spirit, tradition, mascot, sport teams, events, dances and reputation. Approximately 80% of undergraduate students live on campus, and often a student lives in the same dorm for the entirety of their undergraduate career. Even students who move off campus tend to maintain strong bonds with their affiliated residence hall. Halls complete in intramural sports, and the interhall football between Notre Dame male dorms is the only intramural tackle football that has remained at any US university.
Each dorm has its own architectural features, some of which were designed by famous architects such as Willoughby J. Edbrooke,
Maginnis & Walsh and Thomas Ellerbe, and each hall has a chapel dedicated to the hall's patron saint. With the exception of Carroll Hall, the residence halls are split among six main segments of the campus: Main Quad, South Quad, North Quad, Mod Quad, West Quad, and East Quad. While Carroll is officially part of South Quad, it has its own lawn by Saint Mary's Lake informally called Far Quad due to its distance from the rest of the halls. All first-year students are not only guaranteed on-campus housing, but are required to reside on campus for at least six semesters, starting with the Class of 2022.
List
Future and proposed residence halls
Defunct Residences
History
Origins (1843–1888)
When the first students arrived on campus in the fall of 1843, they all resided in a two-story brick building built by Sorin that spring, a building known today as Old College. In the fall 1844 the first main building was constructed with the help of the architect Marsile of Vincennes. The structure was a four-story brick building eighty feet long by thirty-six feet wide, -story high with a small cupola with a bell in it, in French style. The third floor housed both the student dormitories and the residences for priests and brothers; with additional dormitory space on the fourth floor. Two lateral wings were opened in 1853. In 1865 this structure was replaced by the second iteration of the main building, which hosted student dormitories on its fourth and fifth floor. This building burned down in the great fire of 1879, but its successor, the current main building, was swiftly reconstructed and once again hosted most of the university's facilities, including student dormitories. By the mid-1880s, two lateral wings were added to each building to add dormitory space bringing the length of the building from 224 feet to 320. Like all incarnations before, these were open dormitory areas, with no private rooms. In the fall of 1890, the names of Carroll and Brownson Hall were given to dormitories in the west half and the east half of the main building respectively, and portraits of Orestes Brownson and Charles Carroll had been ordered to be placed in the respective halls. The 1892 Golden Jubilee history of the university stated that Carroll Hall was named after John Carroll, who was the first bishop in the United States.Early years and growth (1888-1965)
Sorin Hall, erected in 1888, was the first dormitory built specifically to host students at the university. During the early mid-1880s, the Holy Cross priests experimented with private rooms for upperclassmen with high academic grades and the results were positive. Since the Main Building was overcrowded with students, Father Edward Sorin decided to build a freestanding dormitory to expand residential space for students and alleviate the housing shortage. It was the first of its kind among all Catholic universities and one of the first among colleges across the country.As of 1891, juniors and seniors of the collegiate course were housed in Sorin Hall. Students between the ages of 13 and 17 were housed in Carroll Hall, while those ages 17 and up were in Brownson Hall. Students of different halls had little interaction outside of occasional shared classes. Pupils below 13, called the minims, had St. Edward's Hall to themselves and had their own facilities. Minims had little to no interaction with the other students.
Freshman Hall and Sophomore Halls were built in 1922 and 1923 to accommodate a large influx of students. Total college student enrollment had increased to 1,425 by 1921. Sources reported that between 600 and 1110 students lived off campus in 1922, which meant that the university was also losing revenue opportunity by not offering housing and board to such students. Additionally, administration was worried that off campus student would not be able to benefit from bonding with teachers and other students. These two buildings were meant to be temporary and were cheaply made. Freshman Hall was built for $39,600 and placed north of the Notre Dame Fieldhouse, roughly where Breen-Phillips is today, and run north to south. It was built to host 176 students in the summer of 1922, and it was constituted by a two-story white-frame building, 250 feet long and 45 feet wide. The interior walls were fiberboard while a single-story porch with four wood pillars was placed at the front of the dorm, giving an overall impression of a military barrack. Sophomore Hall was built for $69.000 in thirty-eight days in the summer of 1923. It was located east of St. Edward's Hall, running east to west. It faced the Gymnasium and was perpendicular to Freshman Hall. It was built to host 186 students in the summer of 1922, and it was a similar building to Freshman Hall, 300 feet long and 37 feet wide, and had a two-story porch. The two buildings were known as the Cardboard or Pasteboard Palaces because of their cheap construction. Occasionally, football players would run through the walls.
Long term permanent housing was also built to increase supply of on-campus housing to keep up with the quickly growing student population. Lyons, Howard and Morrissey Halls were built between 1924 and 1927 to alleviate the on-campus housing shortage due to the rapid increase in student population after World War I. In 1929, president Charles L. O'Donnell decided convert St. Edward's Hall, which until then had hosted the boarding school program for younger children, into an undergraduate residence hall, under the direction of professor and architect Vincent Fagan in June that year. The open dormitory was converted into double rooms, while the chapel was left untouched, and the new hall opened in September to house 207 undergraduates. Construction of Dillon and Alumni was part of an extensive building program aimed at improving educational and living facilities, and increasing supply of on-campus residential facilities.
In the 1940s, North Quad housed freshman students and was also known as the Freshman Quad. The other dorms on the Main and South Quads, closer to classrooms and the dining halls, were reserved for upperclassmen.
Residential hall model
Up until the 1960s, the residence halls were based on academic class, with three or four halls for freshmen, three for sophomores, and others for juniors and seniors. This system was meant to develop strong class spirit, but many students started advocating for stay-halls, where students could remain in the same hall for their entire undergraduate career. Those in favor argued that this could lead to stronger hall spirit and more efficient hall government, with only a quarter of students turning over every year. The administration was initially against this for its perceived effect on the freshmen. They believed that new students needed special attention and regulation, such as earlier curfew and more rules, and in addition they did not want to disrupt freshmen accommodation at the same time as they were developing the new "first year of studies" program. Eventually administration experiment with the new system. In the fall of 1965, Dillon, Farley, and Alumni were the first dorms to try the "stay-hall" system. The experiment proved to be successful, but most other residence halls initially rejected it because they did not want to have freshmen living in their halls. In 1967, Zahm and Breen-Phillips also adopted the new system, and eventually all dorms were converted to the current residential college model, where all students are placed in one dorm freshman year and students rarely switch halls.Modern expansion and renovation (1960s-)
Two large hall, Flanner and Grace, were constructed in 1969 at a combined cost of 6.9 million dollars. These two halls, with their 11-stories and capacity for 530 students each, were much larger than previous halls. They also were among the first dorms to offer such amenities as kitchens on every floor, air conditioning, large weight rooms, and in-dorm food sales. Originally, 5 such towers were planned, together with a modernist chapel in Mod Quad, but only Flanner and Grace were ever built. Due to their huge size in student population, Flanner and Grace became known for their rowdiness and massive multi-story parties.When women were first admitted into the university in 1972, Walsh and Badin were the first to be converted to female halls. Breen-Phillips and Farley were converted into female dorms in 1973. increasing the female population from 360 to 775. Lyons followed suit in 1974. Renovations for the transition to a woman's dorm included increased storage facilities and more washing and drying equipment.
One major expansion of the halls occurred in the late 1980s, with the opening of Mod Quad residence halls of Pasquerilla East, Pasquerilla West, Knott, and Siegfried Halls. These four halls were the first one built exclusively for women and were constructed because of the large increase in the female student population.
Further expansion came in the 1996–1997 with the construction of four residence halls in the new West Quad. Each carried a similar plan and build and consisted mostly of doubles with some single and triple rooms and hosted between 262 and 282 students. This new construction coincided with the closure of Flanner and Grace as dorms, and their transition into office space. In order to maintain gender balance, female residents of Siegfried and Knott moved to the new Welsh Family and McGlinn and residents from Flanner moved to Siegfried and Knott in 1997. Residents from Grace moved to newly built Keough and O'Neill Family.
Construction of new halls progressed steadily into the 21st century, with Duncan, Ryan, and Baumer built on West Quad, and Dunne and Flaherty, and Johnson Family built on the newly developed East Quad. Starting in 2017, the university moved towards a stricter residential model, with students required to stay on campus for their first three years.
Notre Dame embarked in a thorough renovation of dormitories with the 2015 Residential Master Plan. Starting with Walsh Hall in the 2016–17 academic year, residential halls are undergoing yearlong renovations that include structural revamping, interior refurbishing, and expansion of amenities. Badin was renovated in 2017–18, Morrissey in 2018–19, Dillon Hall in 2019–20, Sorin Hall in 2021–2022, and Alumni Hall in 2022–23. In 2016, when the first renovation started, the Pangborn community moved into Flaherty Hall and Pangborn was converted into a "swing hall", that would host the residents of the hall undergoing a renovation. In 2021, it was announced that Zahm Hall would take the role of "swing hall" going forward, and Pangborn was re-established as a male hall. Communities that undergo renovation preserve their original hall name and character while living in the swing hall, for example exemplified by name "Alumni Community in Zahm Hall" in 2022–2023.
In 2023 it was announced that Fisher and Pangborn halls would be demolished and replaced with new dorms.