Traditional Six Miles of Board Walks, Now Macadamized, Are Thing of Past

For the last time the task of laying down and removing miles of board walks on University paths has presented itself to University minds and biceps. Dust and mud have worried janitors for the last time.

During the summer Harvard macadamized the last of its walks in the Law School, the Houses, and the Yard, notably around Sever Hall. Thus the Maintenance Department completed its sixyear "beautify the Yard" plan.

The Custom of Board Walks

The custom of laying down board walks during the winter season was half a century old. It was instituted by the Corporation in 1880 largely because of student agitation and of the editorial policies of the CRIMSON and its progenitor, the Magenta, whose columns for seven years warmly espoused the movement for plank walks.

What a maze of trenches and ice plains "our classic enclosure" once enclosed is apparent from the following editorial which appeared on January 24, 1873 in the first issue of the Magenta:

"We wish the College would lay plank walks in the Yard. As we wade through our classic enclosure on the sloppy days of the January thaw, or, when the signal man at Washington turns the water into ice, as we gracefully measure our length in front of the University, we think of this.

ment of our beloved institution, but we mildly hint that plank walks, such as are each winter on the Boston Common, would be a blessing to Faculty and students."

After Seven Years

After seven years of similar agitation the University yielded. And from that time until recent semesters planks graced all Cambridge walks in winter.

Six years ago the high cost of laying down six miles of boards and the increasing upkeep necessary for the renewal of wornout planks had made the annual expense almost prohibitive.

Officials began to indulge in arithmetic and decided to macadamize when they discovered that funds spent on temporary walks would in ten years pay for the cost of comenting all walks.

A New Era

With macadamization under way other savings soon appeared. Janitors reported fewer tons of dust and mud tracked annually into buildings from the dirt paths.

Now methods and economics in snow disposal came to the fore as was the case last winter when the "University Special" tractor appeared on the concrete paths of the Yard one night with its rotating brush whisking away a light snow fall.

A new era was at hand for Harvard contractors, landscapers, and decorators. Everyone began to point for 1936 which, with the concrete walks completed, should be the Yard's most beautiful year.

Since 1930 Maintenance men have been diligently pruning trees, painting houses, planting grass seed, washing John Harvard, and picking up papers that this fall the Harvard Yard should appear lovelier than ever before in its colorful history.