Cushing House

Cushing House
Cushing's west wing, with its central hall visible to the right
Former names	Cushing Hall
General information
Type	Dormitory
Architectural style	Old English manor house
Location	Poughkeepsie, New York
Country	United States
Coordinates	41°41′22″N 73°53′35″W / 41.689428°N 73.893118°W / 41.689428; -73.893118[1]
Current tenants	Vassar College
Completed	1927
Cost	$400,000 (1927)
Owner	Vassar College
Technical details
Floor count	4
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Allen & Collens

Cushing House (formerly called Cushing Hall) is a four-story dormitory on Vassar College's campus in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. A response to freshmen overcrowding, the college's Board of Trustees hurried the Allen & Collens-designed building, named for college librarian and alumna trustee Florence M. Cushing, to construction and completion in 1927. Cushing was originally designed as eight smaller houses with euthenic principles in mind, but ended up as a single U-shaped dormitory in the Old English manor house style with Jacobean interior furnishings.

Students of all grades may live in the house, which houses up to 202 in single, double, and triple rooms. Throughout Cushing's history, various proposals and plans have incited controversy among the building's residents, including designating one of its wings as all-black housing and converting one of its common areas into eight single rooms. Contemporary reviewers have looked favorably upon Cushing's aesthetic qualities, declaring it to be one of Vassar's most beautiful buildings.