Burwash Hall

At the corner of Burwash Dining Hall and the Upper Houses lies North House. The emblem of North House is an oil lamp, originally used to represent Victoria's Faculty of Theology, established in 1871. North has an extended hallway and larger common room than the other Upper Houses due to its position on the corner of the building.

The largest of the Upper Houses due to its incorporation of two battlements which divide North and Gate House, Middle House is the centre of the Upper Houses. The owl is the emblem of Middle House, sourced from the Victoria College coat of arms, and originally used to represent the Faculty of Arts. The Don's room in Middle House was originally the room reserved for the Dean of Men at Victoria, fit with a fireplace and seating area.

Gate House viewed from the Vic Quad.

Gate House is one of the four Upper Houses of the Burwash Hall residence. Until 2007, when Victoria administration made it co-ed, Gate House was one of the last remaining all-male residence building in the University of Toronto.[7] The Gate House emblem is the Phoenix, visible in the bottom-right corner of the Victoria College insignia.

Gate House, with the rest of Upper Burwash, opened in 1913 and has held students every year since then except 1995, when it was renovated.[8] As an all-male residence from 1913 to 2007 it held a number of unique traditions. For 20 years Gate House hosted an annual party called Novemberfest in the Burwash dining hall.[9] The Victoria Dean of Students cancelled Novemberfest in 2003, when police discovered widespread underage drinking and over 800 people in the dining hall, in violation of the fire code.[10] Another Gate House tradition that no longer occurs is the "stirring the chicken," a dinner and keg party where house members cook chicken fajitas for hundreds of guests. Until 2007, Gate House held secretive first-year initiation ceremonies called Traditionals, which involved writing slogans on campus buildings in chalk, singing songs to the all-women's residence (who would then sing back to them), and leading first-years around the house blindfolded.[11] Since Novemberfest, Gate House continued to have conflict with the Administration. In 2004 the Dean evicted three Gate House residents for allegedly "hog-tying" a first-year student.[12] In 2007 President Paul W. Gooch wrote that Gate House undertook an "escalating series of actions" that were "defiant" and "disparaging of women", in response to Gate members constructing a 2.5-metre snow penis and placing a cooked pig's head in an Annesley bathroom.[13] As punishment, during the fall exam period Gooch evicted two residents and relocated the remainder of Gate House to other places in the residence system, banned all current Gate House students from entering the building in 2008.[7] Since this decision Gate House has become a co-ed residence identical to the other Upper Burwash houses. Notable residents of Gate House include Lester B. Pearson, former Prime Minister of Canada, and Simon Pulsifer, who Time magazine nicknamed "The Duke of Data" for his contributions to Wikipedia.[14]

During its 93 years as a men's residence, Gate House developed a distinct character and reputation. These antics included pranks, toga parties, streaking, caroling to other residences, hazing rituals, "beer bashes" and "incessant pounding" on the Gate House table in the dining hall.[7][15] Paul Gooch wrote that these traditions gave Gate House an "ethos" that contradicted his vision of residence life.[7]

The all-male Gate House was known as a social centre and spirited, tight-knit community. According to Grayson Lee, who created the snow penis sculpture in 2007, most of its residents were "heartbroken" to leave.[13] Former Gate House President Dave Ruhl commented that "the Gate House camaraderie is unique" and that living there was "one of the most important parts of the university experience" for many.[7]

The Reuters news agency nicknamed Gate House "U of T's Animal House" because Donald Sutherland's memories of its parties are said to have influenced the script of the 1978 movie.[13] The Toronto Star described Gooch's decision to put an end to its traditions, activities and distinguishing characteristics as "neutering Animal House."[7]

Gate House has three floors which house 28 students, as well as a don and the Victoria College Residence Life Co-ordinator. Above the gate there is a tower that rises three stories higher and has a turret-style roof.

The first floor has one double room and one bathroom available to students. About half of the floor is taken up by the apartment of the Residence Life Coordinator. Lastly, on the first floor there is a house common room with a kitchen and two couches. The second floor has three double rooms and seven single rooms. It has three single washrooms and one larger communal one, as well as its own kitchen. This floor is home to the residence don, who has a larger room with a private washroom. The third floor is identical to the second except that in place of the don's room there are two single rooms.

Adjoining St. Mary's Arch and Lower Houses, South House is the furthest Upper House from Burwash Dining Hall. The emblem of the house is a sphinx, which was originally used to represent Victoria's Faculty of Law, established in 1860.

First House connects the Upper and Lower Houses, and was originally named after the first principal of Victoria College, Egerton Ryerson. The house was renamed for the 2021–2022 school year, after an investigation into the legacy of Ryerson and his role in the Canadian residential school system. The Victoria University Students' Administrative Council initially called for a renaming in February 2019,[16] which was followed by the Victoria University Research Panel on the Legacy of Egerton Ryerson in 2020, and ultimately the Presidential Report on the Legacy of Egerton Ryerson in 2021 which resulted in the change.[17]

Although the house had been named Ryerson since 1933, all five Lower Houses were temporarily named First House, Second House, Third House, Fourth House, and Fifth House from 1931 until 1933. The Board of Regents used these placeholder names until they decided upon better alternatives. In 2021, the name of Ryerson House was reverted to its original title, First House.[18]

Named for Victoria principal, president, and chancellor Samuel S. Nelles, Nelles House echoes the position of Middle House amongst the Upper Houses. Like Middle, Nelles House sits between the first and third houses in the set. However, Nelles is the exact same size and shape as Ryerson and Caven House.

The only Lower House to not be named after a Victoria College student or administrator, Caven House comes from presbyterian minister William Caven, the second principal of Knox College, Toronto. Although he was not directly involved with the affairs of Victoria, he consulted President Nathanael Burwash and Rev. Alfred Gandier about the division of Arts and Theology at Victoria. After great discussion, this spawned Emmanuel College, Victoria's Faculty of Theology.[2] Since the Lower Houses were originally built for Emmanuel students, it is likely that this is the reason for naming the House after William Caven.

Bowles House is named after Victoria president and chancellor Richard Pinch Bowles, the first-cousin once-removed of Lester B. Pearson.

Gandier House is named after Alfred Gandier, the first principal of Emmanuel College.

Lower Burwash Hall Floor Plans (2007)

The very last house in Burwash Hall has a unique style to the other three Lower Houses. Rather than continuing the trend of Upper and Lower Houses in a straight line on the East side of the property, Bowles-Gandier House, colloquially "BG", juts out on the West side of the Southern edge of Burwash Hall. Enclosing the residence structure along the property line where Victoria meets St. Michael's College, the house forms an L shape with the other three Lower Houses.

Unlike Ryerson, Nelles, and Caven House—which are all identical in layout—Bowles-Gandier is the amalgamation of Gandier House and Bowles House, which operated independently until the 1995 renovations.

The floor plan for Bowles-Gandier varies from the other Lower Houses, with a significantly larger common room and two triple-bedrooms on the main floor: each with an in-suite kitchen and bathroom.

The Bowles and Gandier stairwells are connected by a hallway on the second, third, and fourth floors. Each of these floors has a shared kitchen, and two bedrooms at the end of each hall with a connected bathroom, much like the other Lower Houses. They also have two double-rooms in the middle of the hall, which have a connected bathroom and kitchen, meaning BG has the highest kitchen-to-student ratio in Burwash.

Bowles-Gandier is sometimes referred to as the Vic One House, since it is mostly reserved for students in the Vic One program. While not a requirement to live in BG, it has historically consisted of > 80% Vic One students.