University's New Campus Pushes Mem Hall to Eventual Demolition

Slowly the word is circulating up and down the Harvard administrative heirarchy: "The old grads are dying off." And, in terms as simple as the news itself, one implied message is clearly understood. Memorial Hall is approaching the day when it will become a target for the bulldozers.

Few people will speculate how distant that day is; there probably is no precise timetable. Memorial Hall's continued existence depends on two trends moving in opposite directions: the declining strength of the alumni who defend it, and the rising pressure for new land and new buildings, which will eventually destroy it.

Much of the alumni attachment stems from Mem Hall's first 50 years (1874-1924) when it served as a central eating place at Harvard. One University official recalls an uncle (class of '95) who, up until a few years ago, annually had a reunion with his Mem Hall eating partners. "I suspect," says another official, "that if we announced the demolition of Mem Hall, we'd have a battle royal. Half the alumni would be on one side of the street asking us to tear it down and the other half would be yelling to keep it up."

And yet, as a building, Memorial Hall is cherished by few members of the present Administration. They think it is ugly, and, for that reason alone, would be happy to see it go. (Apparently, many Faculty members feel the same way; when the building caught fire in the 50's, some Faculty members reportedly stood across the street and drank champagne to its demise.) But Harvard is, and has been, willing to tolerate the presence of buildings it dislikes on aesthetic grounds. More compelling reasons insure the eventual destruction of Memorial Hall.

Untenable Position

Mem Hall is in an untenable geographical position. It rests at the hub of what is, in essence, an entirely new part of the Harvard campus. In the foreseeable future, it will be virtually surrounded by newer, more modern, buildings. Already William James sits at one corner of the Mem Hall triangle, and all along the other sides, more buildings will be constructed by the end of the decade.

Across from the triangle's narrow tip, adjacent to Littauer, will be the new International Studies Center. Next to it, on a plot now occupied by a small, drab, wooden building, a new $10 million undergraduate science center will be built. Across Quincy St., facing the back of Sanders Theater, the Graduate School of Design will put up a new building. And there is room on this plot for another, probably smaller, facility when the demands arises. Finally, Hunt Hall (now occupied by the School of Design) will be demolished and replaced by either a new freshman dormitory--the best guess--or another academic building.

Altered Site

Nor are these the only changes that will affect Mem Hall; the whole character of its site will be altered when the University builds its $2.8 million underpass beneath Cambridge St. No longer will Mem Hall be a large island between two segments of the Harvard campus. Instead, with part of Kirkland St. closed off and with the roof of the underpass carefully landscaped, there will be a continous mall from the Yard to the fringe of the Law School. It is even possible that either the International Studies Center will extend over the closed-off part of Kirkland St. onto the Mem Hall triangle.

Once this process begins, the logic of the situation will take over. The Mem Hall land will become increasingly valuable to the University. The construction of new buildings will make it logical and convenient for other buildings to be located in the area. Lowell Lecture Hall and the Harvard-owned house next to it will probably be consolidated into a site for a larger building. And after that, Mem Hall will be the only land left for expansion.

Moreover, for esthetic reasons, Mem Hall will grow obsolete. Now it is an isolated building on an isolated plot, but as development proceeds, something will be needed to unite the buildings, not separate them as Mem Hall would do. In short, it will become expendable because its utility--both practical and esthetic--will not approach the value of its real estate.

After all, what really happens in Memorial Hall? It is a place for exams, registration, square dances, freshman mixers, and blood donations. Sanders Theater is the University's largest auditorium, and the offices in the basement are home for a number of organizations. But, for what may well be Harvard's most desirable construction site, these functions are relatively insignificant and hardly justify the building's bulk.

Crucial Location

In fact, Mem Hall's very desirability may be the agent that preserves it a few more years. The administration will want to put a crucial building in this Central location. What will it be? Harvard's planning evades precise prediction, and right now, the demands of five, ten, or twenty years from now are ambiguous. Somewhere within that ambiguity lies the future of Mem Hall.

But, in general, demand for new space and new building sites (for which there are, of course, many possibilities other than Mem Hall) does seem to be strong. Consider some of the things floating around now: the Charles Warren Center for American History is not likely to stay indefinitely in the small wooden house at 53 Church St.; the Population Center, now located in a completely renovated house on Bow St., certainly will grow, and, with it, probably the need for a new home; the Harvard-M.I.T. Joint Center for Urban Studies may someday wish to expand to larger quarters or move closer to the center of academic activity. And then, the University may just decide to leave a large part of the Mem Hall triangle as open space.

Whatever the final use of the site, some basic needs will have to be met. Essentially, says Harold L. Goyette, the University's planning officer, these are the needs that Memorial Hall and Sanders Theater fulfill now: there will have to be a large room for examinations and registration, and there will have to be a new large auditorium. And, at least one thing more--a Civil War memorial.

Mandatory Memorial

The University must have some sort of memorial in order to preserve the agreement by which the building was transfered to Harvard from the alumni who paid for it and had it built. And this contractual obligation, as well as deep alumni attachment, has been one of the chief stumbling blocks to eliminating the building.

And yet, there are good reasons for keeping Memorial Hall. In addition, that is, to the alumni ties, which probably aren't as strong now as many Administration officials say--but Harvard is cautious and it's not now for deliberatly alienating its graduates.) First, whatever one thinks of the building's esthetics, it is significant example of post-war American architecture, and an unwritten University rule seems to be the conservation of buildings from different periods. And second, because of its architecture and location, the building is probably the most memorable land-mark on campus. "It's got soul," as one Radcliffe sophomore remarked, and, whatever the merit of this distinction, one does not like to eliminate Harvard's most prominent landmark.

In the long run, however, such arguments are unlikely to be convincing to Massachusetts Hall. Harvard values its growth. It also values money, and a glance at the dollars already sunk into the development of the new "campus" dispels the notion that sentimentality will prevail. Not counting the money spent on William James, or the millions that will be spent on future buildings, Harvard has already committed $1 million for the Design School land and $2.8 million (it could go to three) for the underpass. And, as the years go by, the dollar commitment will go up, the number of alumni defending Mem Hall will go down, and the day of the bulldozer will move gradually closer