Tenth House Not to Be At MTA Yards

The College has given up all plans to construct the sorely-needed Tenth House on the Bennett St. MTA Yards, President Pusey confirmed yesterday.

Pusey said that the political controversy surrounding the proposed removal of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's switching and storage facilities to Codman Square in Dorchester will make sale of the Yards impossible at any time in the foreseeable future.

Pusey indicated that overcrowding in the College is serious enough to force Harvard to look elsewhere for a site and begin construction of the Tenth House within the next few years.

Last spring, the residents of Codman Square let out a howl of protest at the prospect of MTA facilities in their neighborhood. Spearheading the organized resistance was Sen. Kenneally of Dorchester, who introduced a bill in the Massachusetts Senate prohibiting the MTA from locating repair facilities within 1000 yards of a hospital.

Curiously Enough

Curiously enough, Dorchester's Carney Hospital is situated approximately 950 yards from the center of the MTA property in Codman Square.

Kenneally's bill was trick legislation, intended to affect only the proposed MTA construction in Codman Square. But a law passed by the General Court would hamper the MTA throughout the Common-wealth, and the bill seemed so certain of passage that the MTA had to act to head it off.

Early this month, MTA General Manager Thomas J. McLernon quietly gave assurances that the MTA would abandon its plans to move repair facilities to Codman Square. A day later the Kenneally bill was quietly removed from the legislative docket.

MTA officials claim, however, that outside of Codman Square they have no feasible location for their repair facilities except the Bennett St. Yards.

Last spring the MTA offered the Yards for public sale, and the University bid $5,010,000 for the property A Cambridge lawyer and a Boston real estate promoter both made higher offers, but Harvard's bid was generally considered the only responsible one.