Ohio State students rename, redecorate University District rentals

Students renting houses in Ohio State's University District are carrying forward names and leases from previous tenants, then adding furniture, magnets and homemade pieces to mark the space as their own.

Emma Geesling, a third-year actuarial science student, lives in a house known as Love Shack. The property passed to her from seniors in Kappa Kappa Gamma. Madison Lasso and her friends lived there during their senior year and graduated from Ohio State in 2022. The house was called Kappa Krypt at that time, a name Lasso said came from a group chat of the same name. Before Lasso's lease, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow reportedly lived in the house.

Lasso said knowing who lived in a house before her made the move feel less like arriving somewhere random. "It's a more familiar place, you know that there's a shared history with your community, your sorority," Lasso said. "I like living somewhere with history, with a backstory." Geesling said she values the lineage attached to the name. "Sometimes I wish we did get to coin it [ourselves], but I love the lineage and the tradition of it," Geesling said. She said names tied to inside jokes change as new groups move in, and that shifting identity brings residents closer.

Not every house carries a hand-me-down name. Paige Sommerfeld, a fourth-year health sciences student, said her roommates named their house on their own. "We thought [the house] was very red, so we were just sitting there, and then someone just said, 'Red Rocket,'" Sommerfeld said. She said the residents bring items from their family homes and collect more over the semester. "I look back at pictures of when I moved in, and I feel like, 'There's no way I'm living here?" Sommerfeld said.

Camille Zitney, a fourth-year architecture student, also lives in a house passed down within her family. Her older brother held the lease and transferred it to her group two years ago. Zitney said she builds pieces for her room instead of buying them. "I made my own headboard for my room, I made the valance that goes over my bed, and did a lot of different DIY things that still look great," Zitney said. She said tutorials and existing materials can stretch a college budget that also has to cover rent and groceries.

Zitney shares fridge magnets from roommates' travels and keeps old birthday posters and decorations on the walls. She said she still hears from her brother about the house. "I cannot believe you're living in my house," Zitney said he tells her. "No, it's my house. It's not your house. It's my friends and I." Zitney said the space works when residents feel comfortable being themselves there. "You can feel the energy when you walk in," Zitney said.

House names and leases continue to move between students. Geesling's group holds Love Shack, and Zitney's group holds her brother's former lease.