PTA Seeks Observatory Grounds As Site for New Peabody School

Edward Reynolds '15, Administrative Vice-President, said last night that the University would look into a request of the Peabody School Parent-Teachers Association that the University sell the Harvard Observatory grounds as a site for a new Peabody school.

Eighty parents of Peabody School children outlined their request for a new school site at a meeting of the Cambridge School Committee Monday night. The appeal was referred to the advisory committee recently appointed to work with the school committee in preparing a new school program.

"The University will study and look at it (the request), but would be reluctant to lose title to the land," Reynolds commented last night. The Observatory and two other small plots are the only spots left onto which the University can expand.

The Peabody P.T.A. is equally pressed for land for its new school. In the letter setting forth its proposal the P.T.A. declared. "The sole area of unused land in the Peabody district which appears to be suitable form every point of view is the Harvard College Observatory Grounds."

Legally the city has a right to seize the Observatory Grounds if it so wishes, should the University refuse to sell. The price would be set by court action if the two parties fall to agree.

The Observatory Grounds have long furnished a popular lover's lane and in recent years have been the scene of several holdups and muggings.