Located at the corner of 37th and P Streets, Poulton Hall houses the Office of International Programs, the McGee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, and the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society.
Donation and Naming
In the aftermath of WWII, the government’s College Building Program authorized the Federal Works Agency to transfer surplus military buildings to universities. In 1947, Georgetown received three connected wooden surplus buildings spanning 33,989 square feet, which it quickly covered with a brick facade.
The newly acquired structure was named Poulton Hall, commemorating Fr. Ferdinand Poulton, S.J. who arrived in Maryland in 1638 and helped found the American Jesuit Community. In 1641, Fr. Poulton was accidentally shot and killed while crossing the St. Mary’s River.1
Facilities
When it opened, Poulton Hall provided ten new classrooms, two recreation rooms, six faculty offices and housed the bookstore.2 In 1950, Georgetown announced the creation of an electronic language laboratory to open in the fall. That summer, Georgetown converted a large room in Poulton into 120 sound-proof language drill booths for joint use by the language students at the College and the School of Foreign Service.3 Each booth contained a desk, chair, and set of earphones, providing a space for students to listen to tape recordings of the language they study. The recordings were separated into elementary, intermediate, and advanced work, and there were additional facilities in Poulton for creating new tape recordings.4
Renovations
In 1981, Georgetown spent $1.9 million to convert Poulton to include The Hoya Station Post Office, the Mailing Service, the Printing and Graphics Departments, Publications, Design and Typesetting Departments, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, the Mask and Bauble Theater, the Central Computer Facility, and the Department of Demography with its Center for Population Research. In 1988, the building’s fire alarm system and emergency lighting were updated.5
In 2019, Georgetown expanded the Center for Social Justice’s space, adding meeting rooms and offices. The building’s former UPS store, which closed in 2017, provided some of the additional space.6
- 1Francis X. Ballman, "Poulton Hall," Building Outlines Campus Buildings, 1789 – 1995, Father Lawrence Hurley Memorial Edition, Francis X. Ballmann and the Division of Facilities, 1995, p.87.
- 2Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Ye Domesday Booke, 1949, p.112.
- 3“The Language Laboratory on Hilltop.” Georgetown University Alumni Magazine, Vol 3, No. 2, Summer 1950, p.7.
- 4Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Ye Domesday Booke, 1951, p.201.
- 5"Poulton Hall," Building Outlines Campus Buildings, p.87.
- 6Katrina Schmidt, “CSJ Renovations to Grow Office and Meeting Space.” The Hoya. 13 Sept. 2019.
