From Plympton to Halberstam Street?

Several historic Harvard buildings, including Adams House, Quincy House, and The Harvard Crimson, may no longer be located on Plympton St. if a former mayor of Cambridge succeeds in his plan to rename the street.

Francis H. Duehay ’55 has asked the Cambridge City Council to consider renaming the street after classmate David L. Halberstam ’55, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a former managing editor of The Harvard Crimson who died last April.

The Council will vote tonight whether to refer Duehay’s proposal to the Government Operations and Rules Committee, which would then hold a public hearing and report back to the Council.

Despite Halberstam’s contributions to journalism, Malcom A. Glenn ’09, president of The Crimson, said he was not in favor of the proposal.

“We feel as if there’s something rather sacred about 14 Plympton St.,” Glenn said.

Referring to the paper’s former managing editor, Glenn said, “The person and the place are distinctly important to us, and we would hope to keep the two distinct.”

Duehay declined to comment at this early stage in the renaming process.

Quincy House Master Lee Gehrke said he had yet to hear about the proposed name change, but said that he was concerned it might confuse people looking for buildings on Plympton St.

He also said he hoped that in honoring one person, the city would not forget the street’s original namesake.

“I don’t know the historical context, but I hope that people who do will be consulted about this,” Gehrke said.

According to the Cambridge Historical Society, the street, originally called Chestnut St., was already renamed once in 1875 for Dr. Sylvanus Plympton, who owned a house that used to occupy the block between Plympton St. and Linden St.

At Harvard, Halberstam made a name for himself with colorful sports coverage and became managing editor of The Crimson in his junior year.

Following graduation, Halberstam journeyed south to cover the beginnings of the civil rights movement before joining The New York Times and reporting from Washington, the Congo, and South Vietnam.

He became nationally known and was rewarded the Pulitzer Prize for his critical on-the-ground coverage of the rise and fall of the American-backed South Vietnamese government in 1964.

Halberstam also wrote more than 20 books covering topics from the Civil Rights movement to basketball.

A reporter to the end, he was killed in a car crash in San Francisco on the way to an interview with a former New York Giants quarterback.