Sewanee Dorms Ranked From Best to Worst

If you’re headed to Sewanee, first, congratulations, and second, I hate you. OK, I don’t hate you, I’m just jealous as hell. I graduated from Sewanee a…few…years ago (we’ll leave it at that) and still wish I could go back and do it all over again. You’re going to have a blast, I promise.

Since your Sewanee experience starts in the dorms your freshman year, we figured it might be helpful to talk about them one by one, because we’d be kidding if we didn’t acknowledge that there are some huge difference between them, in terms of both quality and personality.

Here’s our list of Sewanee dorms ranked from best to worst.

#1: Ayres Hall

Occupancy: 114 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Singles and doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

The newest and nicest dorm at Sewanee, built in 2016. Not only do its single and double rooms rival the Ritz-Carlton in their spaciousness and opulence, but the location can’t be beat. Ayres is situated near the dining hall, academic buildings, and several Greek houses. It’s coed and houses both freshmen and upperclassmen, giving it a dynamic social atmosphere.

#2: Humphreys Hall

Occupancy: 118 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Single suites with living rooms, doubles, and two triples
Air conditioning: Yes

Humphreys opened its doors in 2004. It features the best living arrangement on campus for seniors: single room suites arranged around a central common area, apartment style. The location is also fantastic, right next to Stirling’s Coffee House and on the edge of central campus. Because Humphreys houses freshmen as well as upperclassmen, and both men and women, the social scene in the dorm is robust.

#3: St. Luke’s Hall

Occupancy: 115 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Singles, doubles, and suites
Air conditioning: Yes

Sewanee alums of old remember St. Luke’s as an academic building with no elevators, no air conditioning, and a handful of rooms on the top floor usually snagged by senior members of a fraternity. In recent years, it’s gotten a face lift, adding elevators, AC, and dozens of residential rooms and suites. It has a great location and highly sought-after senior suites. The only downside to those suites is that some feature shared bedrooms.

#4: Tuckaway Hall

Occupancy: 67 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Singles and doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

Tuckaway has a convenient location right where the road to the cross breaks off from University Ave. It’s a quick walk across the street to McClurg Dining Hall and no more than five minutes from most academic buildings. It used to be an all-men’s dorm but went coed in recent years. The basement singles in particular are spacious and popular with singles. The only downside to Tuckaway (at least to some)? Hall bathrooms.

#5 (tie): Quintard Hall

Occupancy: 116 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: No
Room style: Singles, doubles, and one triple
Air conditioning: Yes

Quintard ties for fifth place with Elliott. It gets the edge for its amazing senior suites — four single bedrooms clustered around a huge common area — but loses points for its faraway location. Unless you want to get up 15 minutes early to make it to class every day, we recommend bringing a bike.

#5 (tie): Elliott Hall

Occupancy: 55 students
Gender: Male
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Singles and doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

Elliott is an all-men’s dorm with some of the most unique room layouts on campus. Several of the freshman doubles are set up as lofts, with the beds overhead and the study area below. This setup can ease tension between roommates who go to bed and wake up at different times. Elliott is located right across from Tuckaway, sitting in the “V” where University Ave. and Tennessee Ave. merge together.

#7: Hodgson Hall

Occupancy: 60 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: No
Room style: Apartment-style suites with singles and doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

Hodgson is one of the most opulent dorms on campus. Its senior suites are more like apartments, many of them featuring living rooms and kitchenettes. (The downside: a few have shared bedrooms.) The only reason it’s not higher on our list is because it’s in an out-of-the-way location with not much else around it. So not only is it a hike to class, but it’s also a social dead zone.

#8: Cannon Hall

Occupancy: 51 students
Gender: Male
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Singles, doubles, and triples
Air conditioning: Yes

Back in the day, Cannon was considered the jankiest, crappiest, most busted dorm on campus. If you were a senior non-Gownsman with a bottom-of-the-barrel room draw number, you ended up in a single here. But it’s since gotten a face lift, including air conditioning, which combined with its convenient location on central campus makes it a popular choice these days.

#9: Phillips Hall

Occupancy: 26 students
Gender: Female
Central campus: No
Room style: Singles and doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

Phillips is the smallest dorm on campus, and it’s female-only. It’s also far removed from central campus. The only thing nearby is Hodgson, another relatively small dorm for upperclassmen. But if you prefer a quiet living environment and want a nice, modern room with air conditioning, Phillips is a great choice. It’s even better if you can find a way to live there with a big group of friends or sorority sisters.

#10: Benedict Hall

Occupancy: 92 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Double suites
Air conditioning: Yes

If you’re a freshman and want to get plugged into the social scene right away, Benedict is the best place you can land. Its courtyard is a hotbed of activity, and the dorm is located on central campus near several top-tier frat houses. The rooms aren’t bad, either. Each air-conditioned double is divided into a study room and a bedroom, so you can have a little privacy even when your roommate’s around. The only downside is there aren’t any singles (except for the proctor — Sewanee’s term for an RA).

#11: Smith Hall

Occupancy: 90 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Mostly doubles with a few singles
Air conditioning: Yes

Smith Hall opened in 2013 and was the newest dorm on campus until Ayres came along three years later. It’s nice and modern, with ornate common areas. The location is excellent, too: right next to Cannon Hall on central campus. The only reason it ranks so low is because the rooms are fairly small and almost all of them are doubles. That said, Smith is primarily a freshman dorm, and compared to most of the other options available your first year, it’s pretty top notch.

#12: Hoffman Hall

Occupancy: 50 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Doubles
Air conditioning: Yes

Hoffman is a small dorm in a prime location that used to house women only. It also used to lack air conditioning and was seen as pretty run down in general. But it got a major face lift and reopened as a coed dorm. It tends to foster a quiet living environment and a tight camaraderie among those who live there, likely because of its small size.

#13: Johnson Hall

Occupancy: 56 students
Gender: Female
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Mostly doubles with a few singles
Air conditioning: Yes

Johnson, like its male counterpart Cannon, was the black sheep of Sewanee’s female dorms for years. But it recently got some major updates, most notably air conditioning, and thanks to its centralized location has become a popular choice, particularly among sophomores and juniors. Johnson also has a smattering of single rooms that generally get snagged by seniors or by junior gownsmen with good room draw numbers.

#14: Courts Hall

Occupancy: 92 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: No
Room style: Double suites
Air conditioning: No

Courts Hall looking out over the courtyard.

If you’re going to end up in a non-air-conditioned Sewanee dorm, try to go for Courts. For one, it has an open, breezy layout right next to Lake Finney that tends to keep things cool. Also, the doubles are very large, and they’re divided into a study room and bedroom with a door separating them. If you’re trying to sleep while your roommate is finishing a paper, the tap-tap-tap of their keyboard won’t keep you awake. Finally, Courts has a Benedict-level social scene and tends to attract a lively, party crowd.

#15: McCrady Hall

Occupancy: 92 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Double suites
Air conditioning: No

Sewanee students love to dump on McCrady (a.k.a. McCrappy, McShady, etc.) but if you pay attention, you’ll notice a theme: most of the people talking trash never lived there. Aside from the lack of air conditioning and the archaic, cinderblock-walled rooms, it isn’t so bad. For one, no hall bathrooms. Two, your double room is divided between a study room and bedroom with a door in between, so you get a little privacy. And most importantly, McCrady fosters community year in and year out like no other Sewanee dorm. Friends made in McCrady tend to be friends for life.

#16: Hunter Hall

Occupancy: 90 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Suites with three singles
Air conditioning: No

Hunter Hall has a great location on University Avenue, adjacent to Elliott hall and the Fiji fraternity house. Its rooms have a unique layout: three singles that share a bathroom. But — and this is a big but — the suites are situated so that the main door opens into the middle of the three rooms, with the two other rooms off to each side. If you’re the unlucky soul who ends up in that middle room, your two suitemates will constantly be traipsing in and out. Because this is inherently unfair, many suitemates “solve” the problem by each taking a “shift” in the middle room during the school year.

#17: Trezevant Hall

Occupancy: 92 students
Gender: Male
Central campus: No
Room style: Double suites
Air conditioning: No

In terms of amenities and physical living standards, Trezevant (“Trez”) Hall is, to put it nicely, a piece of garbage. The rooms have linoleum floors, cinderblock walls, and ancient furniture. There is no air conditioning. The rooms are divided into a study room and bedroom, but each is tiny, and there’s no door between them, just a doorway. (Many students create a makeshift “door” by hanging a curtain in between.) That said, like McCrady, Trez fosters an impressive camaraderie. Its location by the lake, though a haul from central campus and the dining hall, appeals to many students as well.

#18: Cleveland Hall

Occupancy: 60 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: Yes
Room style: Double suites
Air conditioning: No

Cleveland is a great dorm for people who look at McCrady and say, “I love the lack of air conditioning and the fact that the building seems to be falling apart, but you know what? It just isn’t crowded enough.” The suites in Cleveland feature a study room and two small bedrooms, and they cram four people into the whole setup. And even though they’re called “suites,” they don’t have bathrooms — those are shared by the whole hall. During my time at Sewanee, I heard more roommate/suitemate horror stories coming out of Cleveland than anywhere else. But the location is fantastic!

#19: Gorgas Hall

Occupancy: 104 students
Gender: Coed
Central campus: No
Room style: Singles and doubles
Air conditioning: No

Oh, Gorgas — or “Gorgasm” as it used to be (still is?) called. The dorm everyone loves to hate. In many ways, though, it’s better than Cleveland and arguably Trez. The rooms are actually pretty big, and there are quite a few singles. But its location — even farther out toward the cross than Quintard — gives it a huge mark in the minus column. And, let’s be real, it would be too un-Sewanee-like not to put Gorgas in last place.

Final Thoughts on Sewanee Dorms

19 Sewanee dorms — wow. Until I started compiling this list, it never occurred to me, despite spending four years on campus, how many housing options little old Sewanee has. And as we’ve made clear, the living conditions vary greatly between them. What doesn’t vary is the fact that no matter where you end up, you’re going to have an incredible time at Sewanee, and when you leave, you’re going to wish you were back on campus (yes, even in Gorgas). So, no matter where you end up, make the most of your Sewanee experience. It’ll be over before you know it. Yea, Sewanee’s right!