Old Dana-Palmer House Opens for Visitors in June

A fresh chapter in the long and seldom inactive history of Dana-Palmer House will open next month when it becomes the official residence for visiting dignitaries, President Conant announced this week.

The use of the 126-year-old building--which was the birthplace of astronomy at Harvard and has been the home of two Harvard presidents--will fill a "long-felt need," Conant said.

Stands Near Union

Completely restored and refurbished inside and out since its removal last summer across Quincy Street to make way for the Lamont Library, the three-story yellow frame structure now stands between the Faculty Club and the Union.

The new guest-home has six large bedrooms with adjoining baths, as well as a reception room and a small light-housekeeping suite for the guest-house hostess. No meals will be served in the House itself, but its distinguished occupants will have the use of the adjacent Faculty Club.

Antique Furnishings

Furniture and furnishings--some given by alumni and friends and others on lean from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiques and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts--are examples of these found in a New England House of the early nineteenth century.

Since its erection in 1822, the House has served succeeding generations of University graduates and officials. Rich and Henry Dana, poet and father of the author of "Two Years Before the Mast." was its first occupant. In 1835 housed the first Harvard Observatory.