Memorial Hall (Harvard University)

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Short descriptionScript error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Memorial Hall, immediately north of Harvard Yard on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a High Victorian Gothic building honoring Harvard University alumni's sacrifices in defending the Union during the American Civil WarTemplate:Mdashb"a symbol of Boston's commitment to the Unionist cause and the abolitionist movement in America".[1]

Built on a former playing field known as the Delta, the structure was intended to be imposing.[2][3][4]

It was described by Henry James as having Template:Quote

James's "three divisions" are Sanders Theatre, Annenberg Hall (formerly Alumni Hall or the Great Hall), and Memorial Transept. Beneath Annenberg Hall, Loker Commons offers a number of student facilities.

Conception and construction

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Memorial Hall is, in the opinion of the President and Fellows, the most valuable gift the UniTemplate:ShyverTemplate:ShysiTemplate:Shyty has ever received, with respect alike to cost, daily usefulness, and moral significance.

— President's Report for 1877–78
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This happy commemorative creation of the Union ... the great bristling brick Valhalla of the early "seventies," that house of honor and of hosTemplate:ShypiTemplate:ShytalTemplate:Shyity which [dispenses] laurels to the dead and dinners to the living.



A huge Victorian Gothic barn.

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Between 1865 and 1868, an alumni "Committee of Fifty" raised $370,000 (equal to one-twelfth of Harvard's entire endowment at the time) toward a new building in memory of Harvard men who had fought for the Union in the American Civil War,[8] particularly the 136 deadTemplate:RefnTemplate:Mdashba "Hall of Alumni in which students and graduates might be inspired by the pictured and sculpted presence of her founders, benefactors, faculty, presidents, and most distinguished sons". When, about the same time,Template:R a $40,000 bequest was received from Charles Sanders (class of 1802) for "a hall or theatre to be used on [any] public occasion connected with the College, whether literary or festive", a vision was formed of a single building containing a large theater as well as a large open hall, and thus meeting both goals.Template:R

A site was found on the "Delta", the triangle bounded by Cambridge, Kirkland, and Quincy Streets.Template:Efn-ua The project was formally named Memorial Hall in September 1870, and on October 6 the cornerstone was laid,Template:R Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. composing a hymn for the occasion.Template:Efn-ua

In May 1878, the Committee of Fifty notified the President and Fellows that the project was complete and the premises ready for formal transfer to the university. On JulyScript error: No such module "String".8 the President and Fellows unanimously voted to "accept with profound gratitude this splendid and precious gift".[5]

Architecture and facilities

The building's High Victorian Gothic design, by Harvard alumni William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt, was selected in a blind competition. A 1907 publication gives dimensions of 305 by 113 feet, with a height of 190 feet at the tower;[9] a 2012 source gave a height of 195 feet, making it the ninth-tallest building in Cambridge at that time.[10] Its 1970 National Historic Landmark designation recognized it one of the nation's most dramatic examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture.[11]

A general restoration was carried out between 1987 and 1996.[12][13]

Annenberg Hall

File:Interior, Memorial Hall, Harvard University 2 1878 cropped.jpg
Alumni (now Annenberg) Hall in 1878Template:Mdashb"in which students and graduates might be inspired by the pictured and sculpted presence of [Harvard's] founders, benefactors, faculty, presidents, and most distinguished sons".Template:R A 1916 guide described it as "very impressive; in spite of the mistake of ill-placed rows of hat-racks ..."[14]
File:MannersAndCustomsOfYeHarvardStudente YeMemorialHall.jpg
Drawing by F.~G. Attwood for the Harvard Lampoon (1877), "Manners And Customs Of Ye Harvard Studente". Donald Harnish Fleming wrote, "If you are stuck with a friend or relative who wants to see the sights of CambridgeScript error: No such module "String".... treat him to a view of the animals feeding in Mem. Hall",Template:Refn but another observer claimed, "In the great Memorial HallScript error: No such module "String".... the best of deportment is always to be seen".Template:Refn

What was originally known as Alumni HallScript error: No such module "Unsubst".—nine thousand square feet shaped by massive wooden trusses, walnut paneling, and a blue, stenciled ceiling—was dedicated in 1874.

Originally intended for formal occasions such as alumni dinners, it was almost immediately converted to a dining commons, and was for fifty years the college's main dining hall (charging, in 1884, $3.97 for a month's meals).[15] In 1893, Harvard Graduates Magazine described "the throngs of men who, at one o'clock, are to be seen racing across the yard from Harvard, Boylston, and Sever [Halls], striving to reach [Memorial] Hall ahead of slower competitors for vacant seats at the overtaxed tables".Template:Refn But "as the center of University life moved south toward the Charles, [the dining commons] became less popular and closed in 1925"

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Template:Redirect category shell[16] (see Harvard College § House system), after which Alumni Hall saw mostly light use, typically as a venue for dances, banquets, examinations, and the like. In 1934, The New York Times reported that Harvard officials had "at last found a use for Memorial Hall" by siting a rifle range in the basement.Template:Refn

During World War II, the Crimson reported[16] that "the Great Hall" was being used "in winter-time for the 6 o'clock in the morning calisthenics of the [military] Chaplain's School" (though without explaining why Harvard Divinity students had been singled out for this treatment) and intimated that Stevens Laboratory, in the basement, "is doing secret work in acoustics".

After extensive renovations, in 1996 the space was renamed Annenberg Hall and supplanted, as the freshmen dining hall, the Harvard Union, which had performed that function during most of the intervening time.[13]

Sanders Theatre

Sanders Theatre, substantially completed in 1875 and first used for Harvard's 1876 commencement,Template:R was inspired by Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre. Renowned for its acoustics, and with 1000 seats one of Harvard's largest classrooms,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Sanders is in great demand for lectures, concerts, ceremonies and conferences. Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mikhail Gorbachev have spoken there.

Sanders features John La Farge's stained-glass window Athena Tying a Mourning Fillet; statues of James Otis (by Thomas Crawford) and Josiah Quincy III (by William Wetmore Story) flank the stage. The exterior gables display busts of great orators: Demosthenes, Cicero, John Chrysostom, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Edmund Burke, and Daniel Webster.[17]

Sanders Theatre contributed in an unusual way to the early work of Wallace Sabine, considered the founder of architectural acoustics. In 1895, tasked with improving the dismal acoustical performance of the Fogg Museum's lecture hall, Sabine carried out a series of nocturnal experiments there, using hundreds of seat cushions borrowed from nearby Sanders as sound-absorbent material; his work each night was limited by the requirement that the cushions be returned to Sanders in time for morning lectures there. The scientific unit of sound absorption, the sabin, is very close to the absorption provided by one Sanders Theatre cushion.[18]

Memorial Transept

The Memorial Transept [Script error: No such module "convert".] serves as a vestibule for Sanders Theatre. It consists of a Script error: No such module "convert". gothic vault above a marble floor, with black walnut paneling and stenciled walls, a large stained glass window over each of two exterior doors, and twenty-eight white tablets listing the 136 Harvard men who died fighting for the Union: Template:Quote Confederate deaths are not represented.

Loker Commons

Beneath Annenberg Hall, Loker Commons offers a student pub, music practice spaces, and other facilities.

Fenestration

Twenty-two stained-glass windows, installed between 1879 and 1902, include several by John La Farge, Louis Comfort Tiffany Studios, Donald MacDonald, Sarah Wyman Whitman,[19] and Charles Mills.[20]

Tower and clock

The central tower was nearly complete by 1876, but criticism convinced Van Brunt and Ware to revise it in 1877. In 1897,Template:R added was what a 1905 guidebook described as "an enormous [four-faced clock which] detonates the hours in a manner which is by no means conducive to the sleep of the just and the rest of the weary",Template:Refn and which Kenneth John Conant termed "railroad Gothic".Template:Refn

Script error: No such module "anchor". In 1932, the clock's driving works, and the associated 155-pound (70Script error: No such module "String".kg) bell-clapper, were somehow lowered 115 feet (35Script error: No such module "String".m) to the ground without attracting attention; visiting Yale students were suspectedTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn but the clapper was never found. Three years later the disappearance of the replacement clapper, under similar circumstances, was rumored to be Yale University's revenge for the theft of its mascot, Handsome Dan.Template:RefnTemplate:RefnTemplate:Refn

The upper half of the tower was destroyed by fire in 1956 and rebuilt, to its 1877Template:Ndash1897 appearance, in 1996.Template:Refn

See also

Notes

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References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ a b "Appendix II: Transfer of Memorial Hall", President's Report for 1877–78, Harvard University, pp. 145–147
  6. ↑ Henry James; "New England: An Autumn Impression.Template:SndIII", North American Review, vol. 180, no. 6; June, 1905; p. 808
  7. ↑ "Harvard: America's Great University Now Leads the World", Life, vol. 10, no. 18; May 5, 1941; cover, and pp. 22, 95
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Cite error: Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ a b Office for the Arts at Harvard: Annenberg Hall; Aug. 15, 2011 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/annenberg.html
  14. ↑ Shackleton, Robert. The Book of Boston (1916), p. 235.
  15. ↑ "Fact and Rumor", Harvard Crimson, November 15, 1884.
  16. ↑ a b Services Use Mem Hall for Cal, Drill, Classes, Movies: 70 Year Old Building Was College Center Harvard Crimson. August 24, 1943. Retrieved 2012-11-10.
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Christopher Reed, War and Peace: A stained-glass window in Harvard's Memorial Hall Harvard Magazine, January–February 2010.
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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External links

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Template:Harvard Template:National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Template:Authority control

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