WHEN THE Johns Hopkins University holds its annual spring fair this weekend, at least one couple won't have to walk very far to get home.
Newly inaugurated university President William R. Brody and his wife, Wendy, recently moved into Nichols House, a stately Georgian residence near the Hopkins Club on the Homewood campus.
The two-story dwelling is adjacent to the area where Hopkins students usually set up the beer garden during the fair, and this year will be no different.
"It's going to be there as usual," Hopkins spokesman Dennis O'Shea said of the beer garden. "There's no change because of the president."
What has changed is the president's attitude about campus living.
This year marks the first time in 25 years that a Hopkins president has lived on the Homewood campus. The last one to do so was Lincoln Gordon, who stepped down in 1971 after five turbulent years. Steven and Margie Muller lived in Timonium; William C. and Nancy Richardson lived in Guilford.
The Brodys' decision to live in Nichols House shows how much they want to be part of campus life, even if that means they might sometimes encounter bands on the lawn outside.
"One of my goals is to improve the quality of life on and around campus," Brody told the Johns Hopkins Magazine last fall. "By being here, we can get a better sense of what changes might be needed."
The house is named after Thomas Nichols, a Hopkins trustee who had it built in the 1950s for former President Milton S. Eisenhower. It's a copy of Rolling Ridge, Nichols' residence in Baltimore County.
As editor Sue DePasquale wrote in the Hopkins magazine:
"Eisenhower moved in in 1959, bringing with him his longtime housekeeper Margie Morgan; her husband Charles, and their pet monkey (which spent most of its time in the basement, but was occasionally spotted swinging from the trees in the back yard). Eisenhower had a light out front that he used as a form of invitation; when it was lit, students knew they were welcome to drop in on the widower for an evening of informal conversation in the library -- which many of them did, regularly."
Gordon had a less cordial relationship with students, who gathered on his front steps at one point to protest a drug bust in the dorms. Since 1971, DePasquale reports, Nichols House has been a bed and breakfast, staff offices and a set for the movie "The Seduction of Joe Tynan."
