McCormick Hall is named after Stanley A. McCormick, the husband of Katherine Dexter McCormick ’04, who was the benefactor of the building. Prior to the construction of McCormick Hall, MIT had accommodated undergraduate women in an ad hoc fashion and through a series of short-term measures. McCormick Hall’s construction helped solidify MIT’s commitment to the equal education of women, ushering in an era in which the number of women students steadily grew.

Katharine Dexter McCormick, who is most responsible for the construction of the building, was also a central figure in many of the most important social and political struggles facing American women in the twentieth century. She took prominent roles in the women’s suffrage movement, government reform movements, and efforts to develop safe birth control methods. She believed in using her fortune only to aid unpopular causes which, in addition to controversial political movements, included the visual arts and music. McCormick Hall stands as a monument to her belief that it is possible to combine graciousness and style with intellectual seriousness and persistent hard work.