BECK HALL PASSES INTO HANDS OF NEW OWNER

Marking the end of the long struggle to keep Beck Hall connected with the University, the announcement was made yesterday of the sale of the historic dormitory, the large brick building which stands between Harvard and Massachusetts Avenue with its broadside facing Quincy Square. The dormitory was sold to Harris Poorvu, Boston realtor, by the Charleston Five Cent Savings Bank, which had recently taken it over from the Beck Hall Trust a group of Harvard alumni headed by G.P. Davis '14.

When questioned late yesterday as to what he would do with Beck Hall. Poorvu declared that he did not have definite plans as yet, but that in all probability it would never again be used as a students' dormitory. Stating that he had also acquired the large vacant lot just behind the hall, he said that he might develop the entire property. Whether it would be an apartment house or a business block he refused to say and added that he might sell it without ever doing anything.

This finally ends over seven years of wrangling about the disposition of the building during which time it has been either wholly or partially occupied by University students. Last June the hall and the land adjoining it on the east were put up at auction by the Beck Hall Trust and sold to James Thurman for $161,000. However, Thurman never paid the amount and instead gave the hall back to its former owners. This led Davis in the fall acting for the Trust, to offer to give the building to anyone who would assume the taxes and mortgages amounting to $154,000.

Since no one availed themselves of the opportunity, the hall was recently allowed to go to the bank by foreclosure. The amount involved in the sale of the building by the bank was not disclosed.