Memorial Hall Could Be Almost Anything

Although the Task Force on College Life wants to turn Memorial Hall into a beer hall and at least one member of the Planning Office wants the building used as a center for performing arts, the present construction project on the century old campus landmark will only repair the leaky roof, Harold L. Goyette, director of the Planning Office, said last week.

The $300,000 project, initiated last April, is "essentially a protective preservation job to insure the integrity of the building," Goyette said.

In addition to making the roof and gutters "watertight," workers are restoring the "finials," or lower towers, John B. Hawes, the planning officer supervising the Mem Hall project, said the other day.

The construction, scheduled for completion within the next few weeks, weather permitting, follows a $450,000 project a year and a half ago that improved the heating and installed air conditioning in Sanders Theatre, Hawes said.

Hawes added that the National Park Service granted $80,000 for the current repair work, since the building is included in the agency's registrar of historic buildings.

Hawes has bigger ideas for Mem Hall, built in the 1890s to commemorate Harvard students and alumni killed in the Civil War. Although he said the task force's recommendation to transform the building into a coffee house or an old style beer hall has merit, he would prefer to see the building converted into a campus center for the arts.

No funding is available to finance major renovations, nor to "restore the building to its former elegance," Hawes said. He added he hopes the development office launches a major fundraising drive for Memorial Hall, but said this is probably not a University priority.