Reopening the Doors

Come next fall, Massachusetts Hall will reopen its doors to its most deserving residents: first-year students. After the transfer of control of Mass. Hall from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to the University’s central administration in the summer of 2006, the University announced last spring that no members of the class of 2011 would be placed in Mass. Hall as freshmen. This discontinuation of a time-honored tradition for Harvard first-years was unfortunate for pragmatic and symbolic reasons, and the decision to invite freshmen back into Mass. Hall is one that reflects well on Harvard.
Mass. Hall has a rich history that included young people and students at every step. Erected in 1720 under the supervision of President Leverett, the colonial-style Mass. Hall was originally built as a dormitory for students at the College and was funded by a grant of £3,500 by the Province of Massachusetts in 1718. During the Revolutionary War, soldiers of the Continental Army were billeted in this small but cozy building in the heart of Harvard Yard. Legend has it they melted down the doorknobs in order to make ammunition, and they certainly were not the ideal houseguests. But their humble abode still stands, the oldest building at Harvard and the second-oldest academic building in the country (behind the Christopher Wren building at the College of William and Mary).
During the nineteenth century, Mass. Hall was used as dormitory, office, and administrative space. In the 1920s it was converted back into a dormitory, and in 1939 the offices of the president moved from University Hall across the Yard to Mass. Hall. Until 2007, the top two floors of the building held approximately two-dozen first-year students, but the dorm was taken offline for the 2007-2008 academic year.
The closing of the doors of Mass. Hall to freshmen was a sad retreat from a tradition that held great symbolic value. For practical reasons, the use of Mass. Hall as a freshman dorm was purely positive: It increased the amount of students able to live on Harvard Yard without resorting to crowding or stuffing even more freshmen into Claverly Hall or Apley Court. But on a more emblematic plane, housing freshmen in the same structure that contains the offices of the most powerful figure at the University brings students and administrators into a literal proximity that does much to decrease the symbolic distance between the power poles within the ivy-covered gates of Harvard Yard.
The College’s reasons for eliminating freshman housing in Mass. Hall last year left much to be desired. While former Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 claimed that the dormitory lacked a critical mass of students, Mass. Hall was usually home to a notoriously tight-knit dorm community. And even now that the College will have to rent the residential space that it once owned from the University, the benefits of welcoming freshmen back into Mass. Hall will far outweigh any bureaucratic inconvenience.
Mass. Hall’s function as a dormitory achieves that for which Harvard constantly strives: a delicate balance between incorporating the College’s colorful history, remaining faithful to tradition, and adapting the institution as it has developed from Puritan college to modern University. Mass. Hall once was home to the likes of John Hancock and John Adams, and the College is right in realizing that the 14 members of the class of 2012 lucky enough to be placed in Mass. Hall next fall are invaluable players in the building’s present and future.