ORL has opened a “House Insignia Design” search.
Although the webpage acknowledges that the Houses “do not have to be represented as shields or coats of arms,” the relevant tradition is that of heraldry, and the four house systems that are provided as examples (those of Rice, Harvard, Yale, and SMU) are dominated by shields.
Here are some rough sketches, with speculative blazons. The arbitrary House names assigned by ORL are probably only temporary and are not referenced in the arms. Comments and suggestions are welcome; feel free to submit any of these to ORL without attribution:
|
Allen House. |
  |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Gile, Streeter, and Lord Halls. Associations: Tuck Mall, the Gold Coast, the Hitchcock Estate, the Cemetery, architect Jens Larson’s ocular windows and connecting arcades. Possible blazon: Gules three arches conjoined Or in base two barrulets Argent. |
||
|
East Wheelock House. |
 |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Andres, Zimmerman, Morton, and McCulloch Halls. Associations: Dr. Frost’s House, Judge Parker, the “New Dorms,” the ur-community, the postmodern entry pyramid. Possible blazon: Sable a pyramid proper in base two barrulets Argent. |
||
|
North Park House. |
 |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Ripley, Woodward, and Smith Halls. Associations: College Park, the Bema, the Old Pine or Lone Pine, the stump, the Grotto, early graduates and original college tutors Ripley, Woodward, and Smith. Possible blazon: Azure a tree stump erased in base two barrulets all Argent. |
||
|
School House. |
 |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Massachusetts Row and Hitchcock Hall. Associations: Mass Row (“Mass Rowhouse”), a temple front, Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts flag (whose reverse apparently displayed a green pine tree on a blue field from 1908 to 1971). Possible blazon: Azure a pine tree in base two barrulets all Argent. |
||
|
South House. |
 |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Topliff and New Hampshire Halls and the Lodge. Associations: Hallgarten (“Hellgate”), the New Hampshire College of Agriculture & the Mechanic Arts, the State College, present-day UNH (whose colors are blue and white), Aggies, father of NHC in Hanover Ezekiel Dimond, the State Farm (part of which is now occupied by the football field and baseball diamond), the plow. Possible blazon: Sable a lozenge in base two barrulets all Argent. |
||
|
West House. |
 |
|
|
Constituent buildings: Butterfield, Russell Sage, Fahey, and McLane Halls. Associations: The mansion and estate of wealthy hotelier, philanthropist, and amateur archeologist Hiram Hitchcock, the landscaped auto road of Tuck Drive, a.k.a. Webster’s Vale, Eleazar Wheelock’s first college site (behind Sage). Possible blazon: Purpure a wheel in base two barrulets all Argent. |