Conflagration in Moors Hall Fails to Halt Debut

Newest of Radcliffe's dorms, $840,000 Moors Hall opened yesterday afternoon after two years of planning and construction.

The nee-Georgian structure will house 105 students in small, convenient rooms, alleviating the Annex housing situation to the extent that local undergraduates will no longer be forced to commute. If it efficiently fulfills the functions it was designed for, still-unfinished Moors will provide its residents with well planned, up to date living, eating, and social activities.

Features anticipated since the laying of the cornerstone in March, 1948, include a self-service elevator, numerous small social and meeting rooms, modern kitchen facilities, and a quantity of double rooms in addition to the ever-present and else-where (in the Cliffe) super-abundant singles.

Elevator Attraction

Fourth floor residents will particularly welcome the elevator lift. This convenience was a particular attraction at dormpicking time last Spring to students who lived on top stories of other dormtores.

Those entering Moors Hall after dwelling in other Radcliffe dorms will generally find their rooms smaller than the old ones, however.

To conserve space and expense, the rooms in the new building were made as small as practically possible, but efficient designing and placing of the modern furniture has made use of all available floor space, and the result is living quarters as comfortable as older, larger ones, and which are more convenient and easier to to clean.

Special Rooms Included

The bedrooms will be occupied only part of the time, however, and the dorm has spacious facilities for social meetings in the small rooms on the first floor and in the smoking rooms located on the second, third, and fourth floors.

The social or "sitting" rooms will be used mainly for small club meetings, while each of the smoking rooms will be the relaxation and conversation center for its floor.

In addition to the dining and sitting rooms, the first floor contains a package room, where each resident will have a personal cubby hole; a reception room, where visitors will have a comfortable place to wait while the girl upstairs finishes "combing her hair"; a "gentleman's room" not to be confused with a "men's room"; and the usual entrance-drawing room which features a fireplace at each end. Finishing off the first floor are the apartments of Miss Edith L. Annin, Resident Head, and Miss Mary C. Small, Dean of Social Activities. An extra apartment also has been constructed for special guests of the College.

T-zone

The upper three floors are considerably different from their supporting story, but they are identical to one another. The rooms open onto central T-shaped corridors, which need only be followed past the three-way, full length mirror to the nearest corner for the latest in large scale bathroom facilities. In the center of each floor is the smoking room and adjoining it is a kitchenette for morning coffee and lazy Sunday breakfasts.

The bathrooms contain separate shower and dressing compartments designed to help eliminate Saturday-night waiting, and the large number of wash basins is supplemented by special shampooing sinks complete with hair sprays.

Special Privileges Denied

The smoking rooms are highlighted by soft leather chairs and benches plus modernistic bridge sets. When the building was first designed, these rooms were not considered necessary in a "fireproof" structure, but they were included and students prohibited to smoke elsewhere so that Moors residents should not have room-smoking privileges not enjoyed by other 'Cliffe residents.

Plaster walls have been painted with a view to the light-reflecting and eye-resting qualities of the color's used. North-side rooms have yellow walls to maximize sunlight, while in the other living quarters the conventional plain ivory has been supplanted by pastel grey, green, and blue.

Moors Hall has been paid for almost entirely from funds donoted by John F. Moors '83. It is named after his mother, the late Mary Lothrop Moors.