University Completes Deal to Purchase Gulf Oil Station and Lot for $750,000

Harvard will buy the Gulf Oil gas station and the surrounding lot at the junction of Mass Ave and Harvard St. from the oil company on September 1.

The University will pay approximately $750,000 for the property, directly across Mass Ave from Lamont Library and the Freshman Union, Lewis A. Armistead, community relations representative in the office for Government and Community Affairs, said yesterday.

They Pave Paradise

Harvard will lease the gas station and rent 50 parking spaces to the public until the Red Line construction in Harvard Square is finished in 1983, Armistead said.

David Vickery, assistant Cambridge city manager for community development, said yesterday the city might still take the parcel of land by eminent domain to build a public garage to ease the Harvard Square parking shortage, a plan Cambridge has considered for a few years.

"I personally think it's a very key site to the Square, visually and design-wise, so it has to be approached sensitively," he said.

Armistead said the University has no definite plans for the site after 1983.

Cambridge community reaction to the purchase will depend on what Harvard eventually does with the land, Vickery said. "If it's just another piece of property off the tax rolls, that wouldn't be good," he said, but if Harvard builds new housing or parking space there might be little or no protest.

And Put Up a Parking Lot

Armistead said Harvard would contract with an outside operator to run the parking lot until 1983.

"Nobody knows what'll happen when the MBTA construction ends," he added.

Armistead would not comment on the possibility of an eminent domain takeover of the lot, which Cambridge could only perform if it planned to use the land for a public purpose.