Students Will Gain Access To One-Time Fly Club Lot

A grassy plot of land used rent-free for the last two decades by one of Harvard's all-male final clubs will now be available to student groups on a reservations-only basis, University officials said Friday.

The announcement comes exactly one year after the Crimson revealed that the lot--13,000 sq. ft. of choice Cambridge property known to students as the "garden" of the exclusive Fly Club--is actually owned by Harvard, which has paid over $50,000 in taxes on the property since buying it from the Fly in December 1956.

The land stands on the corner of Plympton and Mt. Auburn Streets, directly west of Quincy House.

The new plans for the land, which Harvard worked out in discussions with the club and still labels "tentative," call for student groups interested in using the land to apply for permission to Archie C. Epps III, dean of students.

Epps said Friday he has not worked out any guidelines for this lending-out arrangement, but he indicated that he does not plan to impose strict limits on use of the land.

Croquet and Picnics

Epps suggested that undergraduates might use the area for croquet or picnics before a home football game.

Harvard has also left the door open for use of the land by community groups, although an official in the Office of Government and Community Affairs said Friday the University will be more concerned with opening up the land to all Harvard students.

But the official, Lewis A. Armistead, community relations representative in the office, said he sees no reason why an outside group cannot use the land if it plans "something legitimate and small enough."

Armistead added that Harvard does not want a "great big concert to draw a lot of people and disturb the general neighborhood."

Epps and Armistead emphasized last week that Harvard hopes to effect its plans for "passive use" of the land without alienating members of the club, which lies directly west of Harvard's land.

Part of this concern, according to Epps, stems from Harvard's desire to avoid paying for the installation of a fence between the University's land and the club's.

'Comfortable Use'

The dean said Harvard will erect a barrier if the land cannot be used "comfortably" by students both in and out of the club.

Harvard purchased the land for $33,000 in December 1956, originally intending to build a "commuter center" roughly equivalent to what is now Dudley House's Lehman Hall. Low alumni donations and completion of another building on campus led to the dropping of the plans.

While the Fly Club's approximately 65 active student members--who pay an initiation fee of about $150 and monthly dues of about $30--continued to get exclusive use of the land (which for several decades has been surrounded by a high chain-link fence) through the '60s, Harvard considered the site for several different proposals, including two for a parking lot or museum.

While Harvard paid property taxes on the land, the Fly Club paid for its maintenance, an arrangement that Epps said will continue.