University Offers Land For Portable Classrooms

The children of the Houghton School may go to classes in portable school-rooms located on Harvard property during the two years it will take to build their new school.

An Administration source said yesterday that the Corporation Monday agreed to lend the City a soccer field at the Business School as a site for the classrooms.

The Corporation would likely approve the release of another possible site for the classrooms, the source said. This site--located on DeWolfe St., just across from Quincy House--is jointly owned by Harvard and the Archdiocese of Boston. Rev. Joseph Collins, pastor of St. Paul's Church, has given preliminary approval for the use of the site, but the Church's final decision will be made by archdiocese officials.

Either Site OK

Mrs. Elizabeth Gill, vice-president of the Houghton PTA, which has been pushing for construction of the classrooms, said yesterday that a "sampling" of PTA opinion made her think that "either site would be gratefully accepted" by the parents. "We have a very deep desire to keep the children in the neighborhood and have the school kept as an entity," she said. "Both sites would appear to do this."

But acting City Manager Ralph J. Dunphy said yesterday that he could not recommend either site to the School Committee, since he had not been able to inspect them. The site on DeWolfe St. might be too small for the classrooms, he added.

Letter Too Late

Dunphy said he received President Pusey's letter notifying him of the release of the Business School site Wednesday, too late to send it to Tuesday' night's School Committee meeting. He said he would "notify" the Committee of Harvard's offer, but without recommending whether they should accept the site.

At Tuesday's meeting, several residents of the Riverside neighborhood attacked a City Council suggestion that the Corporal Burns Playground near Peabody Terrace would be the best place to put the classrooms. They said that "Harvard would come in and take over the playground" once the classrooms were no longer needed. The School Committee voted against using Corporal Burns.

One man who lives near the playground then suggested the DeWolfe St. site, and the School Committee unanimously voted to have Mayor Walter J. Sullivan look into the matter.

At the moment, the DeWolfe St. and B-School sites appear to be the only ones left in the running. If the School Committee selects one of them, the City Council will then have to appropriate about $200,000 to build the classrooms. In previous hearings, several city councillors have opposed the expenditure and supported the alternatives of having double sessions at another school--or bussing the children throughout the city--both of which are opposed by the Houghton parents.

The old Houghton School is scheduled to be demolished this June, with completion of the new Martin Luther King Jr. School slated for September of 1970.