with the motto, “Plain food and plenty of it.” Another departure from the traditional system was a strong feminine element. The supervision of the hall was entrusted to the Regina Bonarum, or “Queen of the Goodies”; and the tables were served by waitresses, “carefully selected for their want of personal pulchritude.”[1]
The success of the production, as theatrical agents say, was immediate and phenomenal—the instant triumph of common sense. The hall was enlarged, a waiting list was formed, and the managers were put to their trumps to accommodate the crowds who still clamored for admission. In 1874, at the suggestion of President Eliot, who had been making extensive investigations on the subject both here and abroad, the concern was reorganized, expanded, and placed in the magnificent nave of Memorial Hall—which, strange as it now appears, was originally planned for nothing but the annual Commencement dinner. The demand for a similar dining place on the à la carte principle led to the founding of the Foxcroft Club, and later to the erection of the spacious Randall Hall, the first edifice in the University built wholly for a refectory (now supplanted by the “Memorial Cafeteria”). All these, supplemented by the excellent restaurant of the Harvard Union, etc.,
- ↑ See Hall, “Commons,” Harvard Book, ii, 115; Almy, “Harvard in the Late Sixties,” Harv. Alumni Bulletin, xxiv, 802.
