Harvard's New Front Door

The munificent Harkness gift to Harvard seems likely to hasten a process already going on--namely, the fronting of the university upon the Charles river.

Harvard has been reaching out toward the river ever since the opening of Soldiers field and the stadium. Freshman dormitories and the vast new business school have moved the university's centre of gravity still more in that direction.

Under an arrangement already mapped out by Harvard's architects, first units of the 'house", scheme of student grouping will be located in the quarters built to accommodate freshmen. Other units of the Harvard plant will be constructed in the same section, now largely given over to tenements and factories.

Harvard yard, instead of being the dominant portion of the university layout, seems destined to occupy a secondary position. This will be heartrending to those who love to think of the yard as synonymous with the college. Possibly the alumni will protest so loudly that the authorities will listen and modify their plans. But the whole trouble--from a sentimental stand-point--is that the university has out-grown its original boundaries and is obliged to find room elsewhere.

If the proposed changes are essential to enabling Harvard to serve succeeding generations better, sentimental objections may well be silenced. Boston Traveler.