Adams House Group Initiates Drive To Restore Mem Hall Clock Tower

In this age of William James Hall and Holyoke Center, an Adams House group the University to rebuild the clock tower of Memorial Hall.

Some 20 students fired off a telegram to President Pusey Tuesday urging him to "RECONSTRUCT CLOCK TOWER OF MEMORIAL HALL." To further their cause William H. Ives '67 and Robert L. Justice '66, are thinking of leading the group in a march on Memorial Hall in the near future.

The group, spawned during a lunch conversation, fears that the University may some day demolish the entire hall. A new clock tower, they believe, would make the building too "aesthetically appealing" to destroy.

Jewish Rococo

The red brick tower, with its four clock faces and gold paint, described by Ives as "Jewish rococo," crumbled in a fire in 1956.

Some time before, according to legend, the Cambridge Fire Department had sought to build a fire station in contemporary style on the triangle across from Mem Hall, but was told by the University that it would clash with the older building. The department built it in Georgian style instead--and then the University went ahead and built Burr Hall, to the firemen's chagrin. When the fire broke out, the story goes, they watched the tower burning from across the street and told inquirers that they didn't have enough water pressure to reach the blaze.

Ives said the tower could probably be rebuilt for about $100,000. "If the University isn't willing," he added, "maybe we can raise the money by public solicitation."

A representative of the group may speak at the Glee Club concert in Sanders Theatre Saturday night. "We're really serious," Ives said. "It's the only way to save Harvard from the new architecture--Sterile and disconnected."