IDOL PROPERTY

For over two years, since the fall of 1930, the Big tree swimming pool has presented a boarded exterior to the passer-by on Holyoke Street. Once the University's only pool, it is now an idle and dusty monument to the expansion made possible by Harkness millions. Because of its central location it was considered as a site for a new telephone exchange, but the erection of such a building elsewhere has rendered the immediate future of the structure, and the land it stands on, as useless as its immediate past.

Sever all Harvard organizations have recognized the possibilities of converting the Big tree pool to some useful function, but the University has been reluctant to part with so valuable an asset as this trace of land so close to the Yard represents. Lately it has been suggested, however, that the University permit the Harvard Dramatic club the use of the property. The club has never had a theatre of its own. Relying on the good will of the Pt Eta Club and the not too low rentals of Brattle Hall, it has been moving from one stage to another. Funds are lacking with which to buy or erect a permanent hall, but the remodeling of the Big. Tree pool seems to be within the economic possibilities of the Dramatic Club. The cost of converting the building should not exceed three or four thousand dollars, and would result in a theatre seating three or four hundred persons. The two squash courts could be used for a work room and social hall respectively.

The Dramatic club would not be the only organization benefited by the conversion of the Big Tree pool. Such a theatre as might be erected there might also serve for the Cercle Francais, the Classical Club, the Debating Council, and smaller gatherings to hear eminent lecturers. Rather than let the Big Tree pool sit idle and the Dramatic club and her sister institutions go begging, the University should make some arrangement whereby the Holyoke street structure could be used by the Dramatic club for a period at least long enough to warrant remodeling.