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Bits of Harvard History
sions, with all sorts of outbuildings, ready for the first comers. Their Episcopal church too (Christ Church) made most commodious quarters. But the largest and best-arranged single source of accommodations was found in the buildings of Harvard College, which was promptly hustled out of town.[1] “In the College,” or Massachusetts Hall, which normally housed sixty-four “scholars,” were squeezed no less than six hundred and forty men; “in the New College,” or Hollis (built 1764), was a like incredible number; “in the Old College”—the first Stoughton—were two hundred and forty; and “in the North Chapel” (Holden) one hundred and sixty were most uncomfortably bestowed.[2]
- ↑ It was early in May that the Committee of Safety ordered the students removed from Cambridge, but what was to become of them no one seemed to know. Two days before the Battle of Bunker Hill the Provincial Congress, after much discussion, voted that the library and apparatus be sent to Andover—apparently a mere precautionary measure. At least, any idea of collecting the College there was soon given up in favor of even more retired asylums. Worcester and Haverhill were both talked of as possible locations, but the most likely choice was rumored at first to be New Hampton, N.H.! Not until the end of August was a more courageous attitude adopted and Concord selected—though that town had already proved within striking distance of the British. See note, page 167, ante; also Harv. Grad Mag, xxvii, 497; Quincy, Hist. Harv. Univ., ii, 164; Lincoln, Journals Provincial Congress, 334.
- ↑ Returns for end of January, 1776. Force, American Archives, 4th Series, iv, 846. A few months later Massachusetts Hall very nearly became a military hospital. Among the elaborate orders issued March 4, 1776, in preparation for the occupation of Dorchester Heights and the engagement expected in consequence, was the direction: “The College to be forthwith appropriated to the reception of the Regimental sick, and such as may be wounded.” Ibid., v, 113.
