United Support for The Archives

The Cambridge community delivered a loud and clear message to the Kennedy Library Corporation this week: the city is united in its support for construction of the presidential archives in Harvard Square.

Five neighborhood associations, President Bok, Mayor Walter J. Sullivan, the Cambridge Civic Association and even the beleaguered Harvard Square Development Task Force all said this week they want the Kennedy Corporation to go ahead and build the archives here.

But Steven Smith, head of the library corporation, wasn't listening to Cambridge this week. Instead he was entertaining invitations for the Kennedy Library from a half dozen communities and the University of Massachusetts.

UMass President Robert F. Wood said in a letter to Smith that the University is "prepared to do everything within our authority to ensure the rapid construction of the complex.

Two days after the offer Smith flew up from New York to inspect the UMass campus at Amherst.