The Delta.

The plot of ground upon which the new monument to John Howard stands is a place of great historic interest. The team "The Delta" which it today bears has become restricted in meaning and applies only to what was originally a small portion of a place of much greater extent. The old Delta embraced the entire triangular space enclosed between Quincy and Kirkland streets and Broadway. It was used many years ago as the "play-ground" of the students and was the first gymnasium that Harvard ever possessed. It is not known when it first came into possession of the college, but "Appleton pasture" of which the Delta was once a part was added to the college lands in 1786. A prominent graduate of the class of 1821 who has lately died, speaks of the Delta, in a book of recollections as a place where "Turkey Shooting," a very popular pastime, was engaged in by the under-graduates. An enterprising yanker kept the turkeys on the Delta and allowed the students for a small fee to shoot at the birds. He trusted to the inaccuracy of the collegiate marksmanship for the preservation of his turkeys and being very successful. managed to make a large profit on his investment. Col. Higginson writes that one of his earliest recollect s is of standing at his fathers gateway, on what is now Kirkiand street in Cambridge and seeing the forms of young men climbing, swinging and twirling aloft in the open play ground opposite." This open lot was the only gymnasium which Harvard then possessed, and although it was quite a primitive affair compared with the present Hemmenway gymnasium it served its purpose as well apparently, as our later and more luxurious accommodations, if we may judge from our recent athletic achievements. Dr. Charles Follen, a German refugee, was its director. He was also professor in German in the college. He met an untimely death by fire in 1840. After 1840 the use of the Delta as a gymnasium was discontinued and gave away to its occupation by votaries of the larger college sports. In 1864, October 12, the "University Base Ball Club" was formed. We are informed that "in the spring of 1863 the Cambridge City Government granted the use of part of the common near the Washington Elm for practice ground" and that "this was used until the spring of 1864". The old ground on the common was then given up and the Delta now partially occupied by Memorial Hall was taken possession of by the permission of the college faculty. In the spring of "65 the 'Varsity nine was determined upon and its first game was played in June with the Trimountain Club of Boston, resulting in a victory for the University, 59 to 32. in 1867 Jarvis field was given to the college for athletic sports in exchange for the Delta, and the nine changed its bases to the former place. This removal was occasioned by a feeling among the graduates, that a memorial should be erected to the students and graduates who had served in the army or navy in defence of the Union and the subsequent selection of the Delta as the most suitable situation for such a monument. On the 6th of October 1870, the corner stone of a "Memorial Hall" was laid and at commencement in 1874 the Dining Hall and Memorial Transept were ready for occupancy, but the Theater was not completed until 1876. The recent dedication of the Harvard statue closes the last scene of the history of the Delta as it is not likely that any further change will take place in the Delta, at least within the memory of the present undergraduates.