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More than 200 Adams House alumni returned to their former house this weekend to celebrate the end of renovations that brought increased accessibility and updated features to the 94-year-old House.

The alumni weekend, which spanned from Friday to Sunday, marked the culmination of six years of work on Adams House, which was completed within days before former Adams residents came back to campus.

While Harvard began renovations in 2019, intending to complete Adams House in three phases — first, Claverly Hall, then Randolph Hall, and finally Russell Hall and Westmorly Court — the processes were severely delayed due to Covid-19, which set progress back by nearly two years.

The weekend of programming included tours of the House, networking events, meals in the renovated dining hall, and the portrait unveiling of former Faculty Deans Judith S. Palfrey ’67 and John G. “Sean” Palfrey ’67, who retired in 2021 and passed the renovation process off to Faculty Deans Salmaan Keshavjee and Mercedes C. “Mercy” Becerra ’91.

Sean Palfrey said the building was able to keep the historic appearance of the original Adams House, something he and Judy had hoped for in their seven years working on the project.

“The founding principle of this was to keep the sort of brilliance of Adams House’s eclectic history and community in place,” Palfrey said. “Sure enough, all of these people are saying that it’s kept the sort of the beauty of it, the quirkiness of it, and the fun and the history of it, so they’ve done great.”

Aaron M. Lamport ’90, an architect from Beyer Blinder Belle — the architecture firm that designed the Adams renewal project — led tours around the renovated house for alumni weekend.

“So much of what our goal was, is how do we hold on to the character of the House, but yet bring it a couple centuries forward in time, functionally, in terms of mechanical systems and things like that,” he said.

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Lamport said that seeing alumni return to Adams had “been really gratifying.”

Compared to renovations in Dunster House and Winthrop House — the latter of which was done by the same firm that renovated Adams — many alumni believed the Adams renovations better preserved the historic architecture of the house.

“Somehow they managed to thread the needle I think in Adams in a much better way,” said Joe D. Levy ’97, who lived in Dunster before transferring to Adams.

“I think it’s cool seeing the progression of the renovations,” said Liam H. De Monaco ’24, who lived in Adams during the renovations.

“They did a really good job with the more recent ones, especially this one, keeping most of what made the house special to begin with,” he added.

Most striking to many alumni were the changes made to increase the accessibility of Adams, including a glass-walled elevator in Westmorly that was finished on Friday, the same day that alumni arrived, and the removal of vertically-stacked entryways.

“I had no idea how inaccessible it was because I was not disabled, but now that we have all these ramps and these hallways and these elevators, I can see how this is a much more accessible and friendly house,” Sam Fang ’11 said.

“I think it’s really funny how many elevators there are,” former Adams House Committee Chair Ryan S. Nolan ’09 said. “I noticed last night that all the alums are still only walking up and down all of the stairs. But I think all the students take the elevators all the time.”

Santiago Pardo Sánchez ’16, an Adams House tutor who resided in Adams as an undergraduate, was heavily involved in the planning of the homecoming reunion, along with other members of the house staff.

Pardo Sánchez described the weekend as exceeding “all our wildest expectations.”

“You see folks from the class of 1953 all the way to the class of 2025 just smiling, just looking around, and then just seeing all the spaces where they have such core memories come to light and made shinier and made more accessible,” he said.

Elizabeth A. Mayer ’96 had just that experience on a tour with Adams residents both 20 years older and 20 years younger than her.

Mayer, a former Crimson magazine editor whose 25th reunion was canceled due to the pandemic, said she was thrilled to get the opportunity to spontaneously reunite with friends and alumni across class years.

“I’m so happy that they opened it up for us to do this because I think being a part of Adams House has been very meaningful for us,” Mayer said.

“I’m here with my roommates, so to have the opportunity to come back to your house, specifically like this, sort of reminds you the meaning that your house assignment is going to have,” she added.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.