Holmes: The Pine Wonder

Cold and new, Holmes Hall sits slightly bewildered in the unlovely corner of the Radcliffe quad. The workmen have just left Holmes. They left last Friday. They left behind them the unhealthy smell of newly dried paint and a cleanliness which is awesome.

To the 105 girls who live there, Daniel Henry Holmes Hall represents anything from escape to imprisonment. Although its smooth, half-lit corridors and functionally quadratic rooms are reminiscent of a converted hospital, most of the inhabitants like it for just that reason. To some it is a "horrible little modern pine world."

Holmes has all the advantages of up to date design. The 51 rooms, uniformly covered with light pastel shades, have pine furniture, pine beds, and pine doors. In each room there are two desk lamps. The accent on living is an accent on simplicity and mass-production good taste.

Few of the girls are indifferent about Holmes. The undergraduates who lived in one of the other dormitories last year appreciate its comfort more than anything. Asked if Holmes were not too chaste, one senior replied "We like our comfort too. We're not that feminine."

A La Mode

The rooms present a challenge. They are difficult to decorate because they come furnished with a great deal of pine, and because only one wall is suitable for hanging pictures. Although Marjorie Gabriel '53, dorm president, said that "each girl decorates her room as she would decorate her room at home," most turn to the collegiate effect, with emphasis on banners and crimson cushions and a notable lack of frilly stuff. Even the few possible varieties of decoration, however, call up the normal feminine snobbish between tastes. "I just loathe chintz bedspreads."

The argument that "nobody knows what you're doing in Holmes" is common among those who like it. Harvard men often boast of the advantages of not knowing the men who live across the hall. In any Radcliffe dorm that it obviously impossible, but Holmes, because of its largeness and mixture of freshmen and transfers, still offers a cordial privacy.

The Added Touch

In the new building it is easy to live outside the rooms. On every floor there is the customary smoker, with a kitchenette tossed in. According to Heddy Schumacher, the housemother, no one has yet complained of any icebox raids. On each floor there are also drying rooms with laundry facilities, and two bath-rooms, with two baths and six showers. One freshman complained that as she was sitting next to a tub on the first day of the term wearing only a man's shirt the door suddenly opened and a man walked through, pausing only to give her a bewildered glance. That occasion, however, is apparently singular.

On the ground floor there is a large living room, which can be converted to a concert hall by means of a movable platform. The living room still lacks rugs and draperies, which will be installed before the Friday jolly-up. Next to the living room is a kitchenette, reserved for darm functions, and down the hall are two more small sitting rooms.

Strains of Chopin

The basement is the real center of the dorm. Holmes was planned with the idea of providing music concentrators with a place to work. When the news went around last year, nearly all the concentrators applied for a transfer to the new building, or at least to the basement. There the administration has collected a music library, a record library with all the required music course listening, six practice rooms, and two large listening booths. A pair of grands are kept upstairs, one in the living room and one in the "artist's room," where, according to the housemother, nervous soloists can be locked up until concert time.

Two is Company

How does the feminine mind (Radcliffe girl) react to the functional, "antisceptic" character of brand new dormitory? Holmes Hall, the infant colossus of the Annex, may have the conveniences that go hand in hand with the highly-touted emphasis on modern living, but some say it is. . . .

All of the rooms but three are doubles. The unfortunate nine, however, aren't much more crowded than the others. The furniture, which is small, can be lined against the walls. The real problem here is closet and bureau space, and as one girl in a triple complained. "We've got everything so neat in here I can't find a thing."

The great relaxation at Holmes is the elevator war. When all 105 girls want to go up or down at approximately the same time, and only one elevator exists for that purpose, the call button scramble demands a good deal of timing. The inept can hear the elevator going up and down time and time again, never stopping because their button-pushing is always a half second slower than that of more skilled competitors.

The Hungry Heart

Holmes' connection with nearby Moors Hall is twofold; it applies to both food and dating. The kitchen at Moors serves both dorms, although one girl said thoughtfully that the food was a good deal better at Holmes than at Moors. Also the architects who designed Holmes made the mistake of planning narrow front steps. At a recent dorm meeting the girls were asked to keep the passage-way to the door clear when saying their goodnights, and if any prolonged adieus were in order to please step around the corner to Moors, where the steps are considerably wider and there is less of a traffic hazard.

Bedroom Manner

Last Sunday Holmes celebrated one of the formally unique Annex occasions; men were allowed in the rooms under the guise of a visiting day, something which may be repeated next term. Few of the girls were very excited, however. One remarked that "sitting rooms were better than having men in the bedrooms," and another said that it didn't make much difference "since we can't offer them anything anyway."