Untold years ago, on a foggy Maine night, ten students crept under the cover of darkness out of their dorms. Under the Bowdoin Pines and a crescent moon, they made toasts of grape juice to the one-armed man.

As exciting as it would be, we didn't quite have that sort of formation. We were founded in the Spring of 1997 as Howard House, as the first group of house leaders was selected. (Read about the creation of the houses.) At this time, the Ad Hoc Implementation Committe assigned our association with Hyde Hall, our first-year Brick.

Howard House existed in a building really known as Howard Hall. The small four-story brick dorm, shown at left, opened in the fall of 1996. Surviving limited common space, 15 leaders in a dorm of 50, and never-ending meetings, the house managed to pull it through for three years.

After three years of promises, the college finally pulled through in the Spring of 2000 with a new house. Bringing a fresh look, a fusbol table, and a Winslow Homer knock-off, the new year's house leaders moved into 228 Maine Street that summer. So far this year we've survived a constitutional name change, television buying, and squirrel-catching debates. In four more years, who knows?!