"Harvard--1775" To Go On Display This Spring

How many apple trees grew in the Yard in 1776? What type of gardens surrounded Harvard Square houses during that period?

These are some of the facts which Theodore B. Pitman '14 had to know before he could complete or even start his diorama of Harvard college in the eighteenth century. Pitman and his staff are now putting the final touches on the model land it will go on display in widener Library sometime in the Spring.

The model is an epic of minute historical research. Unlike the first model--now on display in Widener--which shows contemporary Harvard, this one will present buildings most of which were torn down long ago. The problem for its builders was what to base their scale models on.

Hobby Helps

Fortunately for Pitman, Rupert K. Lillio '35, a landscape architect whose hobby is doing research on Cambridge history, had published a map of Cambridge in 1775. From then on the two worked together on the project.

Lillio's map was the result of 10 years of borrowing around archives and delving into ancient land deeds. But Pitman still needed to know just how large these buildings were, what colors they were painted, what the landscaping locked like and even the kinds of fences that had been built--all of it information which seemed impossible to obtain.

"It was like putting together a picture puzzle," says Lillio, "yet I wanted to do a thorough job." So he went back to sources like the Middlesex County Court House, City Hall, the Cambridge Historical Society, and Widener Library stacks.

Homework Gives Lead

Often he got accurate descriptions of various structures from mathematics theses. For students in the 1700's sometimes handed in geometry problems which involved measuring prominent Cambridge buildings.

Land titles often indicated how many trees were on the property Contemporary descriptions in journals and prints gave even more information. Maps of the present sewer system revealed old brooks that used to meander through Harvard Square and are now enclosed by conduits.

Harvard, vintage 1775, will interest viewers. While the gawkers will recognize Massachusetts or Hollis halls, they will be surprised to see apple orchards covering the regions of Sever and Lamont. Boylston st., which football crowds follow to the Stadium, is nothing but a stone causeway across a swamp. The land under Dunster House is a dock for boats, and a pond lies behind Billings & Stover's present location.

The nearly 150 tiny houses which dot the old old Cambridge area were made of Savogran and brass reinforcements on a scale of one inch to 30 feet. Pitman's assistants combined dried seaweed and twisted wire into threes, while grated moss sprayed with paint made realistic earth for the project.