University Wins Fight To Purchase Building

The University has won its legal battle to gain control of a building on the edge of the Kennedy Library site, but the building's tenants say they will fight any attempts to raise their rent or evict them.

Harvard went to court last January to compel the University Road Real Estate Trust to honor a 1956 option agreement to sell the building, located at 122 Mt. Auburn St. Earlier this week, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Edward F. Hennessy told the lawyers for both parties that he would shortly issue a ruling in favour of Harvard.

L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president of the University, said yesterday that Harvard had no plans to raise rent, evict tenants, or otherwise change the operation of the building. Actual operation will be in the hands of the R.M. Bradley real estate firm -- the same firm which ran the building for the previous owners.

Wiggins said the University had made no decision about ultimate use of the property. Such a decision might not come for several years, he said.

Only A Handful

Though some of the building's 130 tenants remain suspicious of Harvard's intentions, only a handful attended a meeting last night to plan future strategy. "Maybe Harvard will play kosher with us, but if they don't, all hell will break loose," Miss Jessie L. Gill, chairman of the Mt. Auburn Tenants' Union, said.

Miss Gill -- leader of the fight against Harvard's takeover of the building -- threatened to retaliate with "demonstrations, sit-ins, rent strikes, and Irish confetti (iron skillets)" in case of the following:

* Notices of eviction or rent rise;

* Entry to apartments by Harvard personnel without consent of the occupants;

* Questioning of tenants by Harvard personnel;

* Liens against tenants' belongings for non-payment of rent.

According to Miss Gill, the University "would still have the right to collect existing rents, keep the building in repair, and treat the tenants decently."

Miss Gill, an already-announced candidate for the City Council, claimed that the tenants would have the support of Students for a Democratic Society, "people opposed to the Inner Belt," and other Cambridge groups in any action they might take against Harvard.