A Harvard Anniversary

The little red brick colonial structure in the Harvard yard known as Massachusetts Hall, so small that it could be put inside the dining room in Memorial Hall, is the oldest university building in the United States. The two hundredth anniversary of its erection falls within the present College year, and plans are under way for the suitable commemoration of the event. The great and General Court made a grant of 8500 pounds in 1718 for the building of a "new college" to be named in honor of the province, and in 1720 the hall was completed. Princeton's "Old Nassau" goes back only to 1756. Massachusetts faced the original Harvard Hall which was destroyed by fire in 1764, and was itself saved by the exertions of neighbors and the members of the General Court, which at the time was there meeting because of a small-pox epidemic in Boston. After the battle of Lexington the students were removed to concord, and there recited in the court house, the hall becoming a barracks for the Continental soldiers, while Wadsworth House, also still standing, became the headquarters of General Washington. In 1827 Massachusetts was renovated and remodelled, and in 1870 remodelled again, but small changes only were made upon the exterior. Among those of the old days who roomed in this hall were James Freeman Clarke, George Frisbie Hoar, Robert G. Shaw, and Jared Sparks. It is supposed that the residence built by President Dunster about 1644 stood on part of the land now covered by this hall. Today it serves among other uses as the meeting place for Professor Baker's famous play-writing class, "English Forty-Seven." BOSTON HERALD--Dec. 2, 1919.