HARVARD HOUSING TRUST WILL ERECT 25 HOUSES FOR MARRIED GRADUATE STUDENTS

A step toward solving the housing problem in the Graduate Schools was taken yesterday with the completion of plans for a group of houses designed exclusively for married graduate students.

The new buildings are to be erected between Mt. Auburn and Brattle Streets in the vicinity of Doane Street. The project comes as a result of the investigations of the recently formed Harvard Housing Trust into the problem of inadequate accommodations for graduate students which at present is especially serious for those who are married. With over 100 such in several of the graduate departments it is impossible for a large proportion of them to find any suitable place to live in Cambridge. Every fall hundreds of them after vain attempts to locate some lodging place near the University are forced to live in East Somerville, Waverly, or North Cambridge, where they are at great inconvenience in carrying on their studies.

The Harvard Housing Trust was formed of Harvard graduates to see what could be done toward providing those students with suitable homes at a reasonable price, at the same time putting the scheme on a basis which would yield a moderate return to its investors. The first difficulty was overcome last winter when suitable land was discovered for the erection of the proposed houses.

A type of house has been worked out to fit this land and to provide the utmost economy in construction cost. It comprises a row of connected dwellings some of them two story houses of the Philadelphia type, and some of them apartments. The total number of families that will be provided for in this first contract is 43. The houses will be built of local brick and will provide three or four rooms for each of the small families that will use them.

The arrangement is in two long rows on either side of a court which will be called Shaler Lane in memory of the late Dean Nathaniel Southgate Shaler '62. Dean Shaler, who was for many years Professor of Geology at the University and Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School, was always known for his interest in the personal and human problems of his students. This was undoubtedly one of the chief elements in his popularity among all those who knew him. It was felt by the sponsors of the new project, which is to lessen the difficulties of married graduates, that the plan should honor the name of a man whose interests were in similar problems of his students.

The contract for the construction has already been let and it is expected that work will start shortly. The buildings are to be ready for occupancy by the middle of next September. The designing of the houses has been done by Kilham, Hopkins and Greely, a firm of Boston architects. The letting of rooms will be under the supervision of Mr. George W. Robinson, Secretary of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The trustees of the trust are Dean G. H. Chase '96, L. C. Cornish '99, Elliott Henderson, T. L. Storer '18, and H. M. Williams '85.