The Washington times., 1903-05-31
HARVARD IMPROVEMENTS
PLANNED BY FACULTY
Ramshackle Tenement District to Be
Transformed Into FairyIand


CAMBRIDGE. Mass. May 2s.-If plans
now fully decided upon are realized,
Harvard, within the next few years, viii
expand its precincts into one Of the
richest and most beautiful panoramas
inc ginable For some time IL has been
known in Cambridge that g big real
estate syndicate has been buying prop
erty between Mount Auburn Street and
the Charles Riyer-options are held on
every piece of land obtainable. Al
though no one knows exactly who the
holders of these options are. 1t is known
that the persons engaged in the scheme
are old Harvard graduates living in
Cambridge and Boston, and that they
plan to make Harvard college mag
nifcent," with second campus facing
a wide-spreading baa and stately DOR
1nitories adjoining a magnificent boule-
ward.
The scheme IS TO change the whole
section of Cambridge between the
streets mentioned into part of the col
Iege grounds; to erect there dormitories
of the most stately and magnificent
style: to connect these buildings with
the yard proper by means Of a broad
new park boulevard. such as President
Eliot, of Harvard. and Mayor MacNa- +
NEE. of Cambridge, have advocated so
long. and by means of this boulevard to
connect Harvard with its valuable prop i
erty in Rrookiine, where the new $4,000
600 medical school is TO be erected soon- !.
This scheme, backed as it is by some OF
the leading business men in Cambridge /.
and Boston, is said to be almost certain
Of execution.
Of course. the whole scheme hinges
on the new dam which is to be erected
at the mouth of the Charles, changing
the present squalid river basin into
beautiful lake When this dam is built,
the part of Cambridge now lying be-
tween Mount Auburn Street and the
river will be changed from disreputa-
bic. wretched tenement district to the
finest part OF the whole city. Trees
will adorn the banks; the Cambridge
Park driveway will sweep in beautiful
curves along the shore; beautiful build
| ings Will face the water. and the aristo-
| cratic people of Cambridge Will forsake
/
] places on Boston's beautiful, broad bay
Already the tendency is setting in that
| direction. This has been particularly
noticeable the last few years. when such
| buildings as Clayerly Hall. Randolph
! Hall. and WestnorIy Court, all big pri-
/ waite dormitories at Harvard, where the
/ very wealthiest students live, have been
built in Mount Auburn Street in what
formerly was considered the least de-
/ sirabIe part of the xhole city OF Cam
/ bridge. In these dormitories the young
mfIlionaires from New York. Boston,
Philadelphia, Chicago. and all the big
cities have eongregated- The explana-
| ton is that the men interested in these
dormitories are now backing the move
ment TO erect new Harvard near the
river bank.
The changing of the Mount Auburn
section into part of Harvard. Ringing.
as 1t does. on the laying of a new park
way from Massachusetts Avenue TO the
Charles, would have a wonderful trans
forming effect in Cambridge President
Eliot has long been DESTROYS OF putting
the boulevard scheme through, and has
even spoken before the Legislature to
that end. His purpose in so doing is
now evident. With a broad boulevard
running from Quincy Square, on Massa-
chusetts Avenue. TO the Charles. and
1 there connecting with the Cambridge
Park system, Harvard would have al
most immediate connection with Its pro-
posed medical school across the river.
as well as with Tufts Medical School,
which has recently been shifted from
Shawmut Avenue to adioin the Crimson
School in Longwood Avenue
From Harvard, in Cambridge, 10 this
other payt of the university would mean
a drive about beautiful boulevard. fol-
lowing the river basin as far as the
Longwood Bridge, and then, just across
the river, trayersing Commonwealth
Avenue into the center OF Brookline-
tbs richest and most beautiful suburban
city in the United States Cambridge,
In other words, would se Immediately
connected with Brookline, and as the
two cities are each beautiful and aristo-
cratic, the change is one greatly de-
sired The new part" OF Harvard
would come directly along the line of
this boulevard. or at least along that
part OF it leading from Massachusetts
Avenue to the Charles.