BOSTON HARVARD CLUB PLANS

Plans for the house of the Harvard Club of Boston, on the south side of Commonwealth avenue, just west of the corner of Massachusetts avenue, have been drawn by the architects, Parker, Thomas and Rice, of Boston, and accepted by the building committee of the club. Construction will begin soon and it is hoped that the house will be ready for occupancy in the early spring of 1914. The building will have a frontage of 100 feet on Commonwealth avenue and will extend back about 150 feet towards Newbury street. From there a lot, more than 50 feet deep and fronting on Newbury street, will allow space for any additions which the needs of the club demand.

The building is designed after the style of the Georgian period. It will be four stories high on Commonwealth avenue, and there will be a fifth story which will set back 33 feet from the front line. The facade will be constructed of brick and limestone; and the sides and back will be of brick. The central feature of the Commonwealth avenue facade will be a portico supporting four Ionic columns. The main entrance doors at this point will be of iron and glass. Above the portico is the Harvard seal carved in stone, the dominating feature of the design.

"Harvard Hall" Features Interior.

As one enters the front door of the house he comes at once into a hall 19 feet long and 15 feet wide. At the left of the hall is a reading room, 38x29, and at the right are the coat room and offices. At the further end of the hall is the central lounge, 50x33. Close at hand on the right are five telephone booths. The passenger elevator is at the end of the hall, and the back of the lounge are toilet rooms. At the end of the hall, in a straight line from the main entrance, are the doors to "Harvard Hall," which occupies roughly about one-half of the building and looks out towards Newbury street. This great hall, to be used as the main dining room, will be the important feature of the house. It will be 96 feet long, 44 feet wide, and rising 50 feet from floor to ceiling, will extend up through four floors of the building. The longer side of the hall will run east and west. The floor will be of stone. The room will be wainscoated in Flemish oak for 15 feet above the floor, and the walls for the rest of the way will be made of stone. The ceiling will be, after the style of the old Italian palaces, heavily beamed and coffered. Six large windows, beginning above the wainscoting and extending to the top of the third floor, and two smaller windows in the wainscoating on the Newbury street side, will light the hall by day; at night it will be illuminated by three electroliers and by side lights. At each end of the room there will be a large carved limestone fireplace. The walls will be ornamented by 18 decorative pilasters, and a simple cornice will run around the edge of the ceiling. About 500 men can be seated at tables in the room.

Second Largest Organ in Country.

On the Newbury street side of the room, in an alcove 15 feet above the floor, will be placed a pipe organ, the gift of Ernest B. Dane '92. This organ will be with one exception the largest in the United States. Its pipes will rise almost to the ceiling. In front of the organ, facing the hall, will be a balcony for musicians; it will accommodate about 80 people, and will be used by the Alumni Chorus and other bodies of musicians.

On the second floor is another central lounge, 31x33. About a third of the front of this floor on the west side is given up to a private dining room, 38x29, and behind it is another dining room, 23x17. The remaining two-thirds of the front of the second floor is the library, which is 54 feet wide and 29 feet deep. The rest of the space on this floor is used for serving and toilet rooms. The rear of this floor as well as the two floors above, is occupied by "Harvard Hall."

Hotel Accommodations.

On the third floor are a card-room, 18x19, a private dining room, 18x29, and eight bed-rooms; all the bed-rooms are on the front of the house. On this floor are also additional service and toilet rooms. The fourth floor has 11 bed-rooms, and the fifth floor has 15. Many of the bed-rooms in the house have private baths, and the others are convenient to bathing and toilet accommodations.

The general inside finish of the house will be Flemish oak. All the important rooms will have fire-places. There will be an inter-communicating telephone system, a passenger elevator, and all the other conveniences which are to be expected in a modern club or hotel.

The committee appointed by the club to have charge of the erection of the house consists of the following members: R. F. Herrick '90, chairman; E. D. Brandegee '81, W. C. Baylies '84, T. K. Cummins '84, O. Roberts '86, E. H. Wells '97, and James Lawrence, Jr., '01. The club has now 2160 resident members, 296 non-resident members, and 73 Faculty members