In many ways Penn’s college house system started in Gregory House, though Gregory didn’t exist yet.  Beginning in the 1970’s, two adjacent but very separate entities, Van Pelt College House and Modern Languages College House, posed challenging and successful alternatives to the standard ideas of dormitory life.  Their innovations in residential programming, faculty involvement, and community-building became fundamental to the campus-wide college house system born in 1998.  At that time, the two houses joined to form Gregory, named after Emily Lovira Gregory, the first woman to serve on the instructional staff at Penn (1888). 

Van Pelt Manor and Class of 1925 (which still houses the Modern Languages Program), are both small, four-story structures, featuring private bedroom space for all inhabitants.  That privacy is fundamental to the life of the House, but is balanced by Gregory’s unparalleled tradition of plentiful, well-attended and vibrant events, many of which have a long history.  Wednesday night study breaks, Sunday brunches, Bring Your Own Mug, Dinner with Gregory, and multiple foreign language coffee hours are regular fixtures, week in and week out, and annual events like the International Dinner, Lucid Dinner, Oscar Party and New Student Orientation barbecue/karaoke bash are always highlights of the year.   

The snug confines and relatively small size of the community—253 undergraduates, ten graduate students, plus a highly accessible senior staff of administrators and Penn faculty—make for a close-knit, nurturing community.  Thus almost all of Gregory’s upperclassmen are returners—previous Gregory freshmen, now returning to the House for their second, third or fourth year.  The House is in many respects student-run, with those returners serving as House Managers, Upperclass Mentors, or on House Council. 

Gregory’s freshmen have many opportunities to hit the ground running at the House and at Penn.  There are generally between 115-130 first year students living in both buildings.  The third and fourth floors in Van Pelt are almost entirely freshmen; each floor also has a Graduate Associate, Residential Advisor and Faculty Fellow, dedicated to helping freshmen make the transition to college life.  First year students in the Modern Languages Program live on all four floors of the Class of 1925, alongside the upperclassmen (though there are always multiple freshman rooms per floor).  C’25 houses six Graduate Associates, the House Dean and a Senior Fellow along with the 82 undergraduate residents, so it is almost impossible not to get to engage with house staff on a regular basis. 

Gregory’s pioneering residential programs fuse community building and academics. The Modern Languages Program dates back decades and is one of the most special living-learning environments at Penn.  Through language dinners, coffee hours, film screenings and other events, participants gain, improve or maintain fluency in Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish.  The Film Culture Program, founded in 2003, caters to movie lovers of all sorts with numerous eclectic screenings per week, trips to Philadelphia theatres, in-House seminars, and more.  Participants can borrow the House camera to make their own masterpieces; the annual College Houses Student Film Festival began in Gregory and is still co-presented by FCP.  Residents participating in our programs can choose to enroll for course credit in Cinema Studies, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

Danie Greenwell and Minesh Patel designed the winning coat of arms for Gregory College House which depicts a pair of lions rampant on the Earth's surface rooted together by a mighty tree. The lions symbolize Gregory's dual heritage (in 1998, Van Pelt College House and Modern Languages College House were united) and salutes the house of McGregor. The tree represents Gregory's common purpose and fruitfulness as a cohesive House. The globe symbolizes the international character of the House, embodied in the Modern Languages and Film Culture programs and a strong tradition of various British exchange programs in Van Pelt. Finally, the motto "Multis e Gentibus Vires," which means "From many peoples, strength," celebrates Gregory's commitment to unity.