Harvard Would Accept Library on MTA Yards

The University would offer no objection if the Kennedy family chose the Bennett St. MTA Yards as the site of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, President Pusey said this week.

He stressed that the University was taking no active role in obtaining the 12-acre Yards, which some members of the Kennedy family reportedly favor over a three-acre plot near the Business School that Harvard has offered to contribute.

The final decision on where to build the Library is thus in the hands of the Kennedy family--and, more specifically, of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54, who is now recuperating from a plane accident.

Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for civic and governmental affairs, said yesterday that if the Kennedys want the Yards, the University would be glad to see them used for the Kennedy Library rather than for the Tenth House.

Although the University had once discussed using part of the MTA Yards for the Library and part for its own administrators, Whitlock indicated that this was no longer under consideration.

Were First Choice

The MTA Yards were President Kennedy's first choice for the library, but when the Metropolitan Transit Authority found itself unable to relocate repair and storage facilities, the President agreed to the B-School lot.

The idea of obtaining the MTA Yards for the library was revived after the assassination, when plans were made for a Kennedy museum and institute. Some observers felt that chances of obtaining the Yards rose with the reorganization of the MTA into the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, since several persons favorable to the Library were added to the board of directors.

Chances fell, however, when Governor Peabody, who had declared himself ready to help the Kennedys in any way possible, lost last month's Democratic primary to Lt. Gov. Francis X. Bellotti.