It's Open... But Does It Mather?

With construction workers still noisily at work, Mather House- Harvard's tenth House- officially opened yesterday.

About 85 Mather men moved into the low-rise section of the $8 million complex yesterday, making exhausting treks through snow, mud, and debris to cart their belongings.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the low-rise section; the dining hall, library, common rooms, Master's residence, and House offices will not be completed until the beginning of March. The 20-story tower, which will accommodate an additional 146 men, should be completed by September.

Until the dining hall opens, Mather men can eat on interhouse at the Union or any of the other Houses. House Masters, however, can set a quota on Mather men if they feel their Houses are being oversubscribed.

A one semester delay in finishing the low-rise section caused many Mather men extra hardships. Some men had to double up in graduate school dormitories while others were forced to double in tiny singles or living rooms in the other Houses.

In Mather, everyone is guaranteed a single room within his suite.

At 8 a. m. yesterday, Philip D. Irwin '72 distinguished himself as the first student to move into Mather. Comfortably settled by yesterday afternoon, Irwin said, "I like the single room. It's quite a change from the old living room scene in Lowell."

Irwin said when a Radcliffe girl began moving into his Lowell suite in the coed living experiment, it was "another impetus to get out early."

No one in Mather House has a phone yet, not even House secretary Virginia P. Stewart. Mrs. Stewart moved yesterday from her relatively plush offices at 17 University Hall to temporary quarters in the Mather superintendent's office.

John J. Gallen, Supervisor of the House Libraries, has acquired 2000 new books costing $10,000 for Mather and hopes to add another 1000 later this spring.

Gallen said he is emphasizing quality rather than quantity. The Mather library will have a 10,000- book capacity.

Soon after President Pusey came to office in 1953, he began a Harvard College fund-raising program- a campaign which reaped $82.5 million by 1957. Most of the $8 million for Mather comes from the "Gift for a Tenth House Fund," a special division within the Harvard College Program.

Construction on Mather was supposed to begin in 1963 but it took the University an additional four years to buy out a few small parcels of land.

While construction plans aged in a drawer until 1967. when ground was broken, building costs rose one per cent a month. Many of Mather's luxury items, such as elevators in the low-rise section and a carpet-rolling machine in the dining hall, had to be eliminated.