Frosh To Return to Mass Hall

Once described as “too small” by a Harvard dean, administrators confirmed this week that Massachusetts Hall will reopen its doors to freshmen residents.

According to Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam, 14 members of the incoming freshman class will live in the former residence of John Adams, James Otis, and John Hancock.

Although it might be physically overshadowed by its neo-Gothic neighbors, the colonial-style Mass. Hall is Harvard’s oldest building, housing the Office of the President and up until last year, a small group of freshmen.

A year ago, then-Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 said freshmen would vacate Mass. Hall to make room for central administration office space.

“It is too small and it doesn’t have enough critical mass,” Gross said at the time.

Previously, approximately two dozen first-years lived in the dorm annually.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which includes Harvard College, sold Massachusetts Hall to the University’s central administration in the summer of 2006, pulling the dorm offline completely in 2007.

Because the freshman residence no longer belongs to FAS, the College will have to rent the residential space it once owned from the University.

Despite this seemingly bizarre bureaucratic transfer, FAS Dean Michael D. Smith wrote in an e-mail statement that “FAS and the University came to a very reasonable financial agreement.”

The need to move back into cramped quarters may forecast a larger freshman class. The Class of 2012 is the first to be admitted entirely through regular admissions making it difficult for administrators to predict the size of next year’s class.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this month.

But Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67 said that the College would have beds prepared for the Class of 2012, no matter its size.

“We’re not moving freshmen into Mass. Hall because we find ourselves in a bind,” Dingman said.

Despite its small quarters, Dingman praised the 288-year-old building.

“It’s been a popular place to live,” he said, citing surveys of past residents.

Melissa A. Collins ’08, who lived in the dorm her freshman year, said she enjoyed her time in Mass. Hall.

“It was a very small community but that just made everyone in it much closer. The rooms were smaller but it didn’t really affect the quality of living,” Collins said.

—Maxwell L. Child contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Charles J. Wells can reached at wells2@fas.harvard.edu.