A Change of Site

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters but under special conditions, at the request of the writer, names will be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Is it not wise frankly to reconsider the location of the War Memorial Church?

If there are to be one or two or three "small college" groups of buildings erected in the near future and placed probably along the river front, from the Freshman dormitories eastwards, a splendid site will be available for the new Church Situated on the Memorial Driveway, on the banks of the Charles, it can be given a worthy and imposing setting.

Adjoining the new buildings, near the Freshman dormitories, opposite the Business School of Administration dormitories, and more convenient of access than is Appleton Chapel to the Mount Auburn Street and vicinity territory, it will be not far from the new center of population.

In architecture it can harmonize with the new groups.

Such a relocation of the Memorial Church will render unnecessary the destruction of Appleton Chapel, which apparently would, to some, have been the cause of unhappiness, and will therefore permit of services without interruption until the new Church is ready, and perhaps, most happily of all, will stop the attempt to solve what is probably impossible, namely, to erect on the site of Appleton a suitable and beautiful Memorial Church that will architecturally harmonize with the several surrounding conflicting types of architecture and at the same time not be dwarfed by the tremendous mass of Widener.

May not one other consideration be of some weight? If placed in the midst of, and more or less obscured by other buildings which crowd around, it cannot have the inspiring effect nor convey the significance which is desirable. Whereas on the river driveway it might stand forth somewhat like the famous Stump of old Boston and it would impress on all, on students as well as the public, that Harvard cares and stands for spiritual values. Robert Treat Paine '82