Report on Harvard Hostess House Officially Made Known For First Time--Has Been in Operation Almost Three Years

The first official report on The Harvard Hostess House to be made public has just been issued by the department of health of the University. Established in January, 1927 the Hostess House has been operating ever since almost entirely unknown to the University community.

Hostess House, as described in the recent report, is a large three-story house located at 25 Follen Street in Cambridge. One of its purposes is to offer a temporary home to students needing home care, to those, for example, who are not ill enough to be sent to the Stillman Infirmary, or not well enough to be sent direct from the Infirmary to their rooms. Another purpose is to take care of students suffering from temporary depression, however caused. Finally, it is instituted to welcome those unacquainted about Cambridge to afternoon teas, dinner, or homelike evening entertainments.

The work of the Hostess House began in 1927 in a tenement on Shepard Street. The present establishment was given to the Medical Department by Miss Mabel Lyman in memory of her parents Arthur Theodore and Ella Lowell Lyman. The house at the present time is not a regular part of Harvard University.

During the past year the Hostess House has become more than ever indispensible to the Health Department of the University. The report contains the following summary: Of the 41 guests, eight of whom were welcomed twice and one five times, five Seniors, one Sophomore, and seven Freshmen came from the College. Seven came from the Law School, seventeen and one instructor came from the Business School, and one from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Reasons for entering the house are given as follows: six men were convalescents from Stillman Infirmary, eight were suffering from depression, 17 from exhaustion, two from homesickness, two from malnutrition, four from nervous breakdown and two from slight illness.

Teas have proved very popular at the Hostess House since its establishment. This year the number of guests was slightly larger than last year 1,373 in comparison with 1,358. A greater effort has been made to welcome those especially needing the cheer of such hospitality.