In summing up the fortunes of this nutritive enterprise, the annalist who is an amateur of the curious and the coincident can hardly fail to notice that the history of Commons at Harvard seems to fall into four periods, closely corresponding to the terms of occupancy of the four buildings which successively sheltered the scheme. The first, during which Commons were served in the original “House,”’ extends from the beginning to about 1680. In these forty years the normal English plan was followed with but few modifications. Not much is known of this poverty-stricken epoch; but partly from that very fact we may infer that it was the heyday of the system, at least in a comparative sense—that is to say, that the scholars were fed no worse than they were lodged, warmed, lighted, disciplined, and instructed.
The second period covers the eighty-odd years during which the first Harvard Hall was in use. This, especially in its later stages, may be termed the era of weakness. Commons failed to keep pace with the general growth of the College, and were more and more neglected; the traditional system was much relaxed and required increasing efforts to be kept alive at all.
The third period includes the fifty years (1766–1816)
tried a “college restaurant” at the old Brattle Hotel, on the site of the present Post Office, but soon abandoned the scheme. Thayer, Historical Sketch of Harvard University, 43; Centennial Hist. of Harv. Law School, 377.
