Winthrop Buildings May Be Joined

A plan to build an addition to Winthrop House joining Gore and Standish Halls has been submitted to the administration by Ronald M. Ferry '12, Winthrop Housemaster. The new structure would connect the two buildings at the Mill Street end.

Dean Bundy stated Wednesday that Ferry's recommendation had been received, but that no action had been taken on it to date. He emphasized that no funds are immediately available to begin such a structure.

Communal Bathrooms

Ferry's plan calls for low-cost rooms and communal bathrooms to be built in the extension. Such an addition would make Winthrop a long, curved building with four wings jutting toward the river.

If the addition is built, it will be constructed not to increase the capacity of the present building, but rather to reduce the present congestion in rooms. Most of the rooms in Winthrop, as in the other Houses, have at least one extra person assigned to each suite.

If Ferry's plan should be put through, the Winthrop extension would be the first addition to the House system since C-entry of Adams House was built.

Gore and Standish Halls, although both Georgian in architecture, are slightly different in size and style. The new building, also Georgian, would attempt to harmonize with the two existing sections.

Ferry stated that he thinks it unlikely that the Houses can ever be reduced to their pre-war size. His plan is an attempt to "make the best" of the overcrowded situation.

Winthrop has already attempted to reduce its overcrowding problem in a unique way by quartering ten of its students in a University-owned frame house adjacent to Gore Hall on Memorial Drive, officially called "K-entry."

Land Option

Both Standish and Gore Halls antedate the House system, originally being used for freshman dormitories. President Pusey lived in Gore Hall as a freshman. Pusey has several times in the past year stated that the University must soon decide what size it is to be. To provide for further increases the present facilities must soon be expanded through building of new houses and dormitories. In the next decade, experts predict that the demand for college education will increase two-fold.

Although the University has the option to buy much of the property around the Houses, such as the subway barns on Boylston St. near Eliot House, lack of funds prevents another house from being built immediately.

Overcrowding in the Yard already has forced 12 freshmen to be housed this fall at Gallatin Hall of the Business School.