Future Expansion Barred by Business Enterprises

Whatever may be the aspirations of the Planning Committee, future physical expansion of the University is sure to be conducted under manifold difficulties. That there is a purely business group of men actively engaged in dealing with real estate in the path of expansion was disclosed as the result of further investigations yesterday into the projected construction of a hotel at Mt. Auburn and Dunster Streets.

There were three questions that the CRIMSON set out yesterday to answer. These were: How much land between Massachusetts Avenue and the Charles does Harvard own? How much of the remainder is owned by Harvard men who will cooperate? How did it happen that Maurice-Firuski, owner of the Dunster House Bookshop, had been able to purchase from the University Associates without stipulations as to use the corner which his store occupies on Mt. Auburn and Dunster Streets?

University Controls Much of Land

On the first score it was determined that a great deal of the land between Massachusetts Avenue and the Charles, is in the possession of the Corporation as had been supposed. This had been made possible through the efforts of two groups of graduates who twenty years ago banded together for the sole purpose of buying land for the University. The first of these groups called themselves the Riverside Associates. Their activities were described by Professor Edward W. Forbes '95 in an interview yesterday.

"We banded together," he said, "to buy up land between Plympton and Dunster Streets and Mt. Auburn Street and the River. We succeeded in buying most of this property and then we tried to obtain some between Mt. Auburn Street and the Yard in order to get a connecting link between it and the new property.

"Unfortunately even then prices were too high and with the money we had it was impossible to obtain anything. We even tried for St. Paul's Catholic Church but failed to meet with success."

Only a Business Group

The second group who undertook the purchase of real estate in behalf of the University called themselves the University Associates. Up until 1930 they were highly successful and a good share of the land that they had acquired had been duly handed over to the Corporation. Four years ago, however, when Cambridge landowners had discovered what was going on they had to suspend operations because of rising prices. Following this suspension it seems that the composition of the trust changed and they became an admittedly business group while still retaining in their possession several important and vital plots Among the latter were all the plots fronting on Massachusetts Avenue from the Porcellian Club to Linden Street the site that the Waldor Restaurant now occupies, and the site of the Dunster House Bookshop on Mt. Auburn and Dunster Streets.

The last named of these plots was disposed of by the Associates to Maurice Firuski over two years ago. Why--was this very vital corner sold to a private owner and not to the Corporation as had been the custom? The three trustees of the group are Mr. Edmund G. Parker '77, Mr. Harold J. Coolidge '92, and Mr. Augustus P Loring Jr. '06. Mr. Loring, when questioned last night, declared that the University Associates as at present constituted had absolutely nothing to do with the University, and that they were a purely business group organized to deal in real estate, and that therefore he could see no reason why the Bookshop corner should not have been sold to Mr. Firuski. He referred to Mr. Parker for further details as to the particular transaction. The latter when reached on the phone said. "I have absolutely nothing to say to the Harvard Crimson. Goodnight.