City Council Refuses to Endorse Proposed Sanctuary on Charles

A bill to establish the "DeVoto Wildlife Sanctuary" on Hell's Half Acre, Cambridge's only remaining piece of open natural land, was filed in the Legislature last week.

The petitioner, Mrs. George William Cottrell, appeared before the City Council yesterday to seek support for her scheme, which includes a provision that no road should cross the 36-acre area without a special act of Legislature.

The majority of the councilors, however, were unwilling to endorse her plan for a nature reservation to be named after the late author and naturalist, Bernard A. DeVoto '18, who studied the area. The motion to endorse Mrs. Cottrell's bill was sidetracked to the Committee on Roads and Bridges, headed by Alfred Vellucci.

Vellucci suggested that Hell's Half Acre should be turned into badly needed cemetery space, instead of a wildlife sanctuary, and asked Mrs. Cottrell, at one point, whether she favored cremation.

"We keep hearing about the birds and the bees," Vellucci continued, "but the only people who benefit from this land are the Harvard students, and a very few of them."

Economic Death Foreseen

Councilor Joseph DeGuglielmo '29 also opposed the proposal on the grounds that a provision barring road construction from the area might mean "economic death" for the metropolitan area. He argued that if the proposed super-high-way had to cross this section, the bill could delay road building for a year.

The Council then voted that the Traffic Board investigate the need for a stop sign at the intersection of Bow and Plympton Sts., a scene of many accidents and near-accidents recently.