Lehman Hall Renovation Receives Final Approval

The Corporation yesterday approved plans for converting Lehman Hall into student social and study center which will become the permanent home of Dudley House.

Included in the new Dudley House will be a reference library and television classroom for night students a between-classes lounge and study room for Cliffies and a campus "grill" open to faculty and students. The renovation, costing $800,000 will be completed next fall, after classes begin.

The lounge facilities for Radcliffe students will be located on the first floor of the House. In addition to being easily accessible, the way-station will provide relief for the over-crowded Memorial Church basement, where the Radcliffe lounge is now located. The first floor will also house the television classroom night students.

The Dudley House dining room on the second floor "will serve as a central meeting place where students and teachers can discuss anything from grades to Vietnam over doughnuts and coffee," according to Thomas E. Crooks, Master of Dudley House.

The dining room-coffee house will be open only to regular members of the University, including those attending night classes. Between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and from 7-10 p.m., it will operate with a skeleton staff serving a limited menu.

On the third floor will be the night students' reference library. The fourth floor, with its library, study, and activity rooms, will be reserved for Dudley House residents.

The plan to bring Dudley House into the Yard is an old one. The idea was conceived in 1958 with the initiation of the $82.5 million Program for Harvard College. The construction of Holyoke Center has allowed the plans to come to fruition by providing new space for Lehman's present occupants, the University Comptroller's Office.

The firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, in charge of the renovation, designed the original building in 1925.

Services formerly housed on the main floor of Lehman Hall are now located with the payroll office on the third floor of Holyoke Center. The Office for Research Contrasts has moved from Lehman to the fourth floor of Holyoke Center. Lehman's Data Processing Department is now located on the fifth floor of Holyoke.