Ah, Collegetown housing. My mom thinks the whole place is a firetrap. My dad sees it all as a big rip-off. You’ve probably searched high and low trying to find a residence that meets everyone’s standards. No dishwasher? A deal breaker. A 10-month lease? Sign now. And now that we’ve finally unpacked, house-hunting season is already upon us.
The houses in C-town have certainly taken a beating over the years. My Collegetown apartment greeted my housemates and I with a trickle of water that completed ceased if someone was doing laundry. Great, no water! A friend lived in a room with a temperature that hovered around 60 degrees the entire winter. Once, when trying to leave a Collegetown house, I got shocked as I pushed open the metal screen door; an electric current had surrounded the entire house. And yet, we pay anywhere from $400 to $1,000 a month to live in these giant houses that have been chopped into the apartments we call home. So who lived here when these houses belonged to one family and the floors weren’t sticky from decades of spilled beer?
Perhaps Collegetown’s most famous resident is Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov. He came to Ithaca in 1948 to teach Russian at Cornell; while in Ithaca, he and his family lived in 10 different homes in the area. Cornell historian Morris Bishop helped Nabokov rent his first home at 957 E. State St. A few months later, Nabokov and his family moved into 802 E. Seneca St. However, the Nabokovs left this home three years after moving in because the rent was too high. It was primarily at these two homes where Nabokov wrote Lolita. In fact, in 1950 while living at his Seneca Street residence, Nabokov tried to burn his rough draft of the literary masterpiece in the house’s incinerator. Fortunately, his wife intruded and convinced him not to burn the novel read in so many Cornell classes today.
[ ... ]
So whether you’re going to live in house formally rented by a movie star, a world renowned author or just your older sibling, still make sure to check the water pressure before you sign the lease. And best of luck with your search!