In 1956, when the Board of Trustees offered Milton Eisenhower the position of University president, he accepted the offer - contingent upon two conditions. First, Eisenhower asked that the Board begin to admit female trustees, an initial step towards gender equality on the then all-male campus. Second, Eisenhower told Thomas Nichols, a trustee, to build him a house on the Hopkins campus like Nichols's own Georgian mansion.
More than 50 years later, Wendy Brody welcomed me into the lovely-two story Georgian home with an enthusiastic smile, friendly hello and told me that story. Dressed in jeans and a gray sweater, Mrs. Brody took a break from preparing that night's dinner, at which she and her husband would host a University donor, to give me a look around the University president's home.
Life in Nichols House seems to have been a wonderful fit for the Brodys. They've been able to transform the building into their own unique home while maintaining the house's ability to serve the Hopkins community. In reflecting on her time at Hopkins, Mrs. Brody mused, "I don't think we would've been as involved in the campus as we have been if we hadn't lived here." However, she joked that sometimes life on campus is so busy that it's "like drinking from a fire hose."
In 1996, when Bill Brody accepted the University's offer to become its 13th president, the couple relocated from Minnesota's Twin Cities. When discussing the couple's living situation in Baltimore with University trustees, many of them assumed the Brodys would live off campus and use the Nichols House for University-related entertaining and office space only, as had been the practice in recent University history.
While Nichols House was home to Presidents Milton Eisenhower and Lincoln Gordon from 1958 to 1972, in 1972, when Steven Muller took over as chief at Hopkins, he declined to take up residence in the two-story brick home. Mrs. Brody explained that as Muller had young daughters, an all-male campus was thought to be an inhospitable environment for them.
While off-campus living had become tradition for University presidents, the Brody family preferred to have only one house that could also be accessible to the campus community; so the University and the incoming president undertook the project of converting Nichols House from office space back into a home.
When a member of the Board of Trustees learned that the Brody family had decided to turn Nichols House back into a residence, he offered to personally finance the renovations and redecoration of the house. "We had an unlimited budget," Mrs. Brody explained.
While there were no specific restrictions on how the house would be refinished, Mrs. Brody attempted to maintain much of the traditional design of the house while simultaneously altering it to properly reflect the character of the University.
In the living room hangs a number of paintings, including one landscape painted by a Hopkins professor.
In a corner of the same room, two beautiful silk flower prints are displayed, found on a visit to the SAIS campus in Nanjing.
Mrs. Brody explained that she preferred lesser-known pieces that are unique to the University and speak to its history. "I wanted to make this a place to entertain students and professors," she said.
The Brodys' residence of 12 years exudes as much home-like warmth as it absorbs light through its massive windows.
Because the house is only "one-room deep" through most of its length, most rooms in the house have the benefit of light pouring in on two sides.
Given Mrs. Brody's proclivity for the outdoors, she's created a beautiful space in the backyard with a patio, fountain and shrubbery.
What was originally known as the President's House is witness to many hobbies of our outgoing President. In a small room, adjacent to Dr. Brody's study, rests a fax machine, printers and of course, the pilot's own flight simulator. The living room prominently features a large piano, littered with sheet music of Gershwin and others.
Both Brodys have their own personal study quarters - but at opposite ends of the house. Mrs. Brody jokes that if she and her husband are both working at nights, they'll pick up the phone to talk.
The well-trained family dog, Molly, knows not to cross the border between the kitchen and dining room, which informally divides the Brody's more personalized living space, which few visitors to the house see, from the parts of the house that are used principally for entertaining and meetings.
The swinging kitchen door and the difference in colors between the hardwood floors marks the division between the two areas, which Molly is sure to respect. While the more formal areas of the house boast a deep mahogany colored flooring, the kitchen features a lighter, sandy-colored floor that complements Mrs. Brody's upbeat and enthusiastic personality.
The kitchen is spacious and rather gourmet, suitable for both the Brodys' own use and for catering companies who frequently use the kitchen for University functions at the house. Mrs. Brody chose to outfit the kitchen with, of course, a few more windows, and a speckled-gray granite, which was, at the time of my visit, even more speckled due to the scattered fruits, onions and other fixings for that night's supper.
Behind the kitchen are the family den, Mrs. Brody's study and the master bedroom.
While neither of the Brodys's two children, now aged 28 and 34, ever lived in Nichols House, both have their own bedrooms on the second floor.
The younger of two, their son's room feels youthful, decorated with baseball memorabilia. Their daughter's room is piled up with boxes as the Brodys prepare to move West.
While the house exudes the spirit of the Brody family and the history of the University, there are certain rooms that remain strictly business. The small parlor on the first floor was "claimed" by the trustees, who use the room to store briefcases and coats and to make business calls when they come to Nichols house for a lunch.
However, in just a few weeks the Brody's will be leaving for a month-long trip abroad, before they settle down in California. The couple will be moving to Southern California where Dr. Brody will serve his new post at The Salk Institute. However, Mrs. Brody explained that both she and her husband are from Northern California, where they still own a home in the Lake Tahoe area.
President-elect Daniels and his family plan to follow the Brodys' lead and reside on campus. While much of the furniture in the family den and other private spaces belongs to the family and will leave with them, other pieces, like the large and elegant dining room table, will remain as part of the Nichols House collection. There are no specific guidelines as to how the House must be decorated, and there is no guarantee that another generous trustee would fund a redecoration.
By all accounts, one is not needed. The house gleams with elaborate white woodwork and paneling, dark burnished hardwood floors, oriental rugs and carefully matched furniture. And of course - lots of light.
Mrs. Brody walked me to the front door where we stood and said our goodbyes under the watchful eyes of Thomas Nichols, who was enshrined in portrait hanging in the house he helped build. Nichols House is fittingly smaller than Mr. Nichols's own 40-room Georgian mansion, but the president's residence is perfectly in sync with the loveliness, warmth and light of a campus graced with brick walkways and blossoming cherry trees in the spring.
As I zipped up my coat and stepped back onto campus proper, I thought about three months from now, when the Brodys will officially vacate the 50-year-old Georgian. I wonder whether the spirit they have imparted on the house will stick when a new tenant moves in. What's certain is that the impact they have left on all the schools of this University, from Homewood to East Baltimore to SAIS, will not fade.
