Administration Plans Purchase Of Eliot's Kirkland St. Residence

Negotiations are under way to purchase the house in which Charles W. Eliot, Class of 1853, President of the University from 1869 to 1909, lived as assistant professor in Mathematics and Chemistry.

A specific use for the purchase has not been determined, but "the land is the significant part," Edward Reynolds '15, Administrative Vice-President, said yesterday. The house, occupying a sizable plot, is located on Kirkland Street, between New Lecture Hall and Beacon Street, and the University-owned Holden Green Apartments.

Eliot designed the house, which was built under his direction in 1856. It is a double home, and his parents and three unmarried sisters occupied the westerly half of it. After his marriage in 1857, Eliot moved into the other half, and lived there until the death of his wife, in 1866.

The land on which the house was built was then a corner of the Shady Hill estate, owned by the family of Charles Eliot Norton, professor of Fine Arts and Literature. The estate is the original site of the Shady Hill School.

During his occupancy of the Kirkland Street house, Eliot's position as an assistant professor expired, and, although he had hoped to be appointed Rumford Professor of Chemistry, Wolcott Gibbs was chosen for the chair. Eliot was forced to leave Harvard, and shortly thereafter became a professor at M.I.T.

The house is surrounded by many shrubs and trees, which may be valuable, since Eliot was known to be fond of visiting the arboretum.