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The Renovation of Divinity Hall (1904)
Divinity Hall was dedicated on August 29, 1826. In the later part of
the 19th century various renovations are mentioned in the Dean's
Reports. In 1882/1883: "Summer before last the chapel was
refurnished and decorated ... [This] last summer ... the entries have
been made much brighter ... and ... the vestibules have been enlarged.
... the field at the north of the building has been levelled. This ...
will in time furnish a very convenient place for out-of-door
sports." In 1892/1893: "Steam heat has been introduced
... into the hallways and the Chapel and excellent bathrooms have been
added on the two lower floors ...."
In 1904, the Chapel was completely renovated. The architect was
A.W. Longfellow, Jr. (1854-1934), nephew of the poet Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. After graduating from Harvard, he entered the new
architecture program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After additional study in Paris in 1879-1881, he apprenticed with H. H.
Richardson. From 1886 to 1896, he was in partnership with Frank
Alden and Alfred Harlow in a firm that designed in both Boston and
Pittsburgh. From 1896 to 1923, he worked on his own. In
Boston he designed the now demolished stations on the elevated railroad
(1898/1902) and the elegant Eben Draper House on Beacon Street (1904);
he redesigned the apse and pulpit of the Arlington Street Church
(1910). He designed Phillips Brooks House (1897-1899) and the
Semitic Museum (1902) at Harvard and Agassiz House (1904) and Bertram
Hall (1901) at Radcliffe. He designed Winthrop Hall (1892) at the
Episcopal Theological (now Divinity) School and many houses in the
Brattle Street neighborhood. He was active in the Boston Architectural
Club and the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. Longfellow was
featured in Margaret Henderson Floyd’s recent book Architecture
after Richardson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
Divinity Hall has been much improved during the year. The
renovation of the Chapel has been completed, and it is now a dignified
and beautiful place of worship. Tablets of marble or oak have been
set, in the walls in memory of Professor Hedge, Professor Thayer, and
the Rev. Edmund Sears, and to recall the delivery in the Chapel of
Ralph Waldo Emerson's Divinity School Address. To these are soon to be
added memorials of Dean Everett and Professor Henry Ware, Jr. There
has also been added to the equipment of Divinity Hall a modern
bathroom with four slate-lined shower baths, and the hallway floors
have been in part relaid. These changes, together with the provision
of the Common Room for all occupants of the Hall, tennis courts at the
rear, and the advantages of the Library and Reading Room, have made
Divinity Hall one of the most attractive dormitories in the
University. An instructive experiment has been undertaken in reserving
the right of occupancy to students approved by the Dean, with a
preference given to graduate students and professional students having
some sympathy with the purpose of the School, and the result is the
creation of a congenial group of mature men, who find in the building
a pleasant Centre of companionship. It seems not unreasonable that a
similar plan, which may give to each dormitory or group of dormitories
a certain stamp of interest or sympathy, might be applied to other
Schools of the University with success.
Dean's Report, 1903/1904
During the last summer two changes were made in Divinity Hall
from which good results are anticipated. Twenty rooms were supplied
with simple and substantial furniture, a small addition being made
to the rent of each. The furnishing of these rooms seemed especially
desirable from the fact that so many of our students come only for a
year. The other change referred to was the arrangement of what will
be known as the “Common Room.” The partition between two rooms
was taken away and they were redivided so as to form a larger and a
smaller room opening into one another by large doors. The smaller
room will be used as a reading room, and the larger for social
purposes. The rooms are furnished in an attractive manner. This
arrangement was made possible by money given to the President and
Fellows of Harvard College, shortly after his graduation from the
school in 1872, by Rev. John William Quinby. This money was to be
expended under the direction of the Faculty of the Divinity School;
and it seemed to that body that no expenditure of a portion of it,
together with the interest that had accumulated, could be more
useful to the school and more honorable to the giver than this. An
inscription will commemorate the generosity that made this extremely
pleasant feature of the school possible.
HDS Dean’s Report, 1898-99
The Divinity School is the only department in the
University having its own dormitory. This fact has, however, not
always been to the advantage of the School. Divinity students have
found themselves segregated from the main movement of university
life, and since Divinity Hall is an inexpensive lodging-place, rooms
not occupied by Divinity students have, as a rule, been taken by
College students who were willing to sacrifice comfort for economy.
The building has thus for many years been in disfavor among many
students of the University; and the school has borne the reputation
of being the report of few who could live elsewhere. The brevity of
a college tradition is illustrated by the fact that in a half-dozen
years Divinity Hall has been transformed into one of the most
popular dormitories, and is now occupied by a select and congenial
colony. A pleasant Common-Room makes a meeting place for all
occupants of the Hall, a large bath-room with four slate
compartments for shower-baths, and a reserved tennis court are
provided; and application for residence by students not members of
the School must be approved by the Dean. Students of the Graduate
School and the professional schools are preferred in these
applications, which are now in excess of the capacity of the Hall.
The establishment of a social center within a dormitory, and the
giving of a specific character to dormitory life, is not without
instructiveness for the administration of other University
buildings.
HDS Dean’s Report, 1901-02
Floor plans from the catalogue of 1911/1912
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This online exhibit was prepared in 2000.
Copyright ©2000-2005 by the President & Fellows of Harvard College
Address corrections or comments to Clifford
Wunderlich.
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