Mass. Hall to Ditch Frosh

The Harvard president’s office transferred into part of Mass. Hall in 1939, more than two centuries after the red-brick colonial was constructed as a student dormitory. Come September, the administration’s move into the University’s oldest building will be complete—students are not expected to live there in the 2007-2008 school year.

“We don’t plan to use Mass. Hall as a freshman dorm next year,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, adding that the space might still be used for emergency or overflow housing. In an interview last week, Gross said the 287-year-old building had outlived its usefulness as a dormitory.

“It is too small and it doesn’t have enough critical mass,” he said.

According to Harvard officials, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) last summer sold Mass. Hall to the central administration, which houses some of its main offices in the bottom floors of the building.

Eighteen freshmen live in Mass. Hall this academic year, down from 24 last year, according to the proctor, David J. Meskill ’88, who said he learned of the plan to empty the building of students last month. He said that Mass. Hall has been a good fit for students—who reside just feet away from the ornate offices of Harvard’s president and provost.

“It’s my impression that students there are at least as happy, if not more happy, as in the other dorms,” said Meskill, Mass. Hall’s proctor for the past seven years.

Dean of FAS Jeremy R. Knowles said the move to transfer Mass. Hall from the purview of FAS to the central administration came in response to the growing needs of the expanding offices of the president and provost after former President Neil L. Rudenstine reinstated the provost’s position in 1991.

“Until this academic year, Massachusetts Hall was a FAS building, with the exquisitely curious arrangement that the President paid rent to the FAS for his office space,” Knowles said in an interview last week.

The University’s central administration had rented office space on the first, second, and part of the third floors. The third and fourth floors have traditionally housed 24 freshmen.

Knowles added that the renovation of Mass. Hall had previously been discussed.

“I believe that if President Summers had remained in post, the intention was that Mass. Hall would have been renovated for the administration during this academic year,” Knowles said.

But University spokesman John D. Longbrake said there were not any immediate plans for renovation or reconfiguration of the building for other uses. He said the official transfer of Mass. Hall from FAS to the central administration took place on July 1, the day after former University President Lawrence H. Summers moved out of the Yard.

Meskill, the proctor, acknowledged that his dormitory has a reputation for housing “a bunch of nerds.” But he said students quickly get over any fears of how their friends may view them.

Thomas C. Gray ’10, a current resident of Mass. Hall said that the dorm has the same mix of studious and non-studious students as any other.

“The stereotype is that it’s kind of quiet,” Gray said. But not so, he added.

“My roommate is a hockey player, I’m a swimmer, and the girl down the hall is a softball player,” Gray said. “It has kind of become a social center for those three teams.”

The future of Mass. Hall, currently the second-oldest academic building in the nation, remains unclear. Gross said in his statement that the use of the space on the top floors is still under review by FAS and the central administration.

—Samuel P. Jacobs contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Madeline W. Lissner can be reached at mlissner@fas.harvard.edu.