Women's Center Will Open in Cambridge

Since vacating the "Occupied Women's Center" at 888 Memorial Drive on March 16, Boston area women have carried out an intense search for a women's center, and have finally found a suitable location.

The 12-room house at 46 Pleasant St. near Central Square will open its doors as a women's center on June 1 or July 1, depending on when negotiations for the mortgage can be completed. The house will cost $28,800.

Archibald Cox '34, University troubleshooter, said last night that there will be no prosecution of any woman who participated in the 888 Memorial Drive occupation. "We were only able to identify a few women as being there, and those we managed to identify weren't there enough to warrant our prosecuting them," he said.

The new center, which will house such disparate activities as an auto mechanics course, a drop-off center for children, and a women's liberation newspaper, is the fruit of a two-year search.

The $9000 needed to make the down-payment on the house has already been donated anonymously, some of it by older feminists in the area. The women still rely almost entirely on fund-raising to pay for the center and for renovations they will need to make.

The Pleasant St. site is one of over 50 buildings the women considered. "We had to make a quick decision to buy over the Mayday weekend, just after the house came on the market." Jane, one of the women active in fund-raising, said.

The women are incorporating as the "Women's Educational Center. Inc.," a non-profit educational institution. The incorporation process should be completed in the next few weeks.

"Because we meet in small groups, the women's movement is very decentralized and unstructured." one of the women said. "Until now there has been no central place for women to congregate. We hope that as many women as possible-from all backgrounds-will feel that this center is theirs," she added.

In addition to holding skills courses and self-defense instruction at the center, the women plan to create a library, a large meeting room, and a lounge for gay women. It hasn't been decided whether anyone will actually live in the center.