Part 2-1

Located right next to the hill, address 1445 12^th st, is the iconic ‘Hill House’ known as the Barn.  Positioned almost directly on the corner of 12^th and college, the Barn embodies all of the elemnts of the Hill district.  Like much of its relatives, this Hill house is old, rickety, and well partied in.  While the Hill is a subjective term in and of itself, it nonetheless represents more than just 13^th st.  When students refer to the hill they are generally implying to the area surrounding the hill, which is about a four block radius. 

            From personal experience, living in one of these houses is often a blessing and a curse.  While being closely located to institutions such as the school, community centers such as the church, and local business scattered throughout the Hill, young often-inebriated adolescents also surround you.  If you take a close look at the surrounding houses, one will notice that each house contains several mailboxes.  Living in a Hill House one is forced to live in compliance with often-complete strangers, or with close neighbors whom they usually do not know.  An example of the Hill lifestyle can be seen through the abundant amount of fraternities and sororities surrounding ‘the Barn’.  A hill house is often subjected to the whim of others, and walking west one will see the streets lined with cars and ‘college houses’.  By the time one reaches 9^th street you have officially left the ‘Hill’ going west.  This ending of the Hill is marked by the graveyard, which occasionally you will find odd Boulderites hanging out in. 

            Moving east from ‘the Barn’ one will quickly pass through 13^th st, or the Hill, and be presented with the tunnel to campus.  Although the University and the town of Boulder are symbiotically intertwined, once one steps foot on campus they are technically no longer on the Hill.  Simply walking down college from west to east, one is capable of experiences the gradual changes in the hill; from a graveyard, to college party houses, to local shops, then eventually the University.  Moving south from 12^th st. one is approached by more iconic “Hill Houses” such as the ‘D House’, a house that is notorious for having extravagant parties students of the upper class. 

            Located at 12^th and Euclid, the D House marks the end of what is technically considered the Hill going south.  Embodying all that is ‘the Hill’ and what it stereotypically stands for, the D house serves as a quintessential Hill house as well.  Once one passes Euclid, you are slowly integrated into a much more residential area with upper and middle class working civilians.  Leaving ‘the Hill district’ is something one can feel out for themselves.  Simply walking the four block west of 13^th st, and 2 blocks up and down those encompassing streets, one will know clearly when they have left the area.