School of Education Plans to Move To Site at Radcliffe Quadrangle

The Graduate School of Education yesterday announced that it has acquired a new campus in the Radcliffe area.

The new campus for the 41-year-old School will consist of Longfellow Hall and a 30,000 sq. ft. structure to be erected opposite Longfellow on Appian Way.

Longfellow and the land across from it went to the Education School from Radcliffe in a $1.2 million package. Part of the bargain is a Radcliffe option for land on Observatory Hill, near the Radcliffe dorms.

The School will begin to move onto the new site in September, 1962, after Longfellow is remodelled this summer. Until then, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences will continue to use the building for classes.

According to present plans, the Education School will use Longfellow for classrooms, and faculty and administrative offices. The new building will house the research projects. Its construction date is not yet contemplated.

Francis Keppel, the School's dean, said the site is "admirably fitted for our purposes. It gives us room to expand, and it's close to the center of Harvard, Widener Library."

Although the Appian Way operation solves most of the School's immediate needs, certain problems remain. Chief among them, stressed Keppel, is the question of library space.

One solution might lie in Radcliffe's plans for a future library on the corner of Shepard and Garden Sts. But the Radcliffe News Office refused to comment on speculations about the sale or renting of Radcliffe Library to the Education School.

Earlier this summer, the Education School rejected a plan for a campus site in the Harvard science area at Kirkland and Oxford Sts. The proposal gave way to the Appian Way project because it did not allow for "future expansion."

Implicit in the change of plan is the fact that the School will eventually be able to move further into Radcliffe territory. The Radcliffe News Office reported that the Education School has options on Radcliffe land adjacent to the tract it has purchased.

The three Radcliffe buildings which stand on the newly-acquired tract will be torn down to make way for the Education School's new construction. Among the condemned houses are the Radcliffe Tutorial House and the Maintenance Building.