Local Alumni Claim Neglect Of Mem Hall by University

With bitter attacks on the University for "violating its legal trust" and "neglecting its most sacred building," local alumni last week began a drive for $80,000 to restore the ornamentation of the Memorial Hall tower.

James Lawrence, Jr. '29, of Brookline, said he would start soliciting funds immediately in order to "bring pressure to bear on the University administration." After a substantial sum has been collected, the Corporation will be asked to match this figure with its own funds, Lawrence said.

"We think Memorial Hall should be restored to its original appearance--however much we deplore the architecture of that appearance," the alumnus said.

Fifteen Protest

Lawrence is one of some 15 alumni who have written to the "Alumni Bulletin" in recent months protesting the "downright shabby, shoddy, and shameful" state of Memorial Hall at the present time. "Fashions in architecture come and go," wrote Gordon Allen '98 in one of these letters, "but neglect of historic buildings, and this is one, is not to be condoned in a great university. . . .

Many of the alumni involved in the drive still think of Memorial Hall as a sacred monument to the University's Civil War dead. "This was the Westminster Abbey to us; we bared our heads when we entered, because some of our father's names were there on the wall," a member of the Class of '01 recalled yesterday.

The "Alumni Bulletin," in printing the Memorial Hall letters, pointed out that restoration of the tower would cost up to $100,000 and that "it seems a fair question whether this project is the most desirable channel for so much of the University's unrestricted funds." William Bond Wheelwright '01 answered in a succeeding issue with "a fairer question: . . . Does the Corporation deny it is its legal duty to maintain its property in proper condition?"