Summer Work Makes University Hall Clean and Safe for Many More Years of Intellectual Activity

Faculty members need have no fear of plaster falling into the midst of one of their assemblies, for workmen have spent the summer renovating University Hall, and the patched and cracking ceiling of the Faculty Room exists no longer.

With modernity as their keynote, decorators plastered the Faculty Room's ceiling and put modern wire lath in place of the old-fashioned wooden lath formerly used. At present the finishing touches are being added by the painters who are still busy on the exterior of University Hall.

Further evidence of modernity as an underlying principle of the work is to be found in the removal of the antiquated bottle water-cooler which used to stand in a corner just outside the President's office and in the installation in its stead of one of the latest type electrically refrigerated water-coolers. To quench their thirst now, President Conant and his office force drink city instead of spring water.

Still in keeping with the general policy the old steel smoke-stack which previously helped to decorate the side of University Hall, has finally been removed. Smokeless since 1914, when use of the boiler plant in the basement of the building was discontinued, it had, nevertheless, remained a part of the Yard's scenery until this summer.

The last time University Hall was redecorated, in 1923, the painters ran into a snag. The difficulty arose over the question of what colors should be used in the Faculty Room, but after prolonged and solemn deliberation, a sort of greyish green and light cream was chosen.

This year with the view in mind of using exactly these same colors, Mr. Shepley, one of those who had participated in their selection, was called upon to lend a band in the work. The ultimate result is that the Faculty room has been successfully re-adorned in precisely the same hues as it donned eleven years ago.

From the time that University Hall was built, in 1815, until 1858, what is now used for Faculty gatherings was the University Chapel. Sometime after usefulness as a chapel came to an end this central portion of University's second and third floors was divided horizontally, and transformed into lecture rooms, but in 1896 it was restored to almost its original form and put to use as Faculty assembly room. The only difference of the room today from what it was about 120 years ago is that the old chapel's galleries, which were reserved for the sole use of professor's families, have been removed.