The oldest college building in America--Massachusetts Hall--will have its 200th birthday this year. Some years ago the birthday of Hollis Hall was celebrated by a pageant, speeches, poems, and dinners. Massachusetts Hall, which is older than Hollis, will have an even more elaborate celebration. Plans for it are in charge of William Coolidge Lane, Librarian of Widener Memorial Library and President of the Harvard Memorial Society.

Massachusetts Hall was started in 1718 and finished in 1720. The Province of Massachusetts heeded the repeated pleas of President John Leveret of Harvard for another building and appropriated 3,500 pounds to be used to erect "a fair and goodly house of brick." The province was poor in those days, and this was considered a magnificent sum. The building is indeed "a fair and goodly house." Its substantial timbers and brick have stood 200 years of wear and tear.

In 1776; when the Massachusetts militia was concentrating for an attack on the British troops in Boston, the Colonial troops were quartered in Massachusetts Hall. Those students who did not shoulder muskets moved their books to Concord. The soldiers during their stay did 49 pounds' worth of damage to the hall.

For many years the rent of rooms in Massachusetts Hall was, with the Cambridge ferry tolls, one of Harvard's principal sources of income. The hall housed 72 students, in 36 small studies. The building is 50 by 100 feet and is three stories high. Many notable persons have lived in Massachusetts Hall during their College course. For 150 years it did service as a dormitory.

Student Life Not Luxurious.

Student life was both Spartan and Puritan in the early days of Massachusetts Hall. The students performed their ablutions in the chill New England air at a pump in the College yard. The regulation College breakfast was "a cue (mug) of beer and two sizings of bread." Students were up at daybreak and were kept at their studies by candle-light. If the frequent verbal admonitions of their tutors failed to keep them at their books, a stout stick was resorted to. One unfortunate youth, on being chastised by the Reverend Nathaniel Eaton, first President of Harvard, cried aloud for Heaven to sustain him while the Reverend Mr. Eaton plied an industrious birch. He was then given another thrashing for taking the name of God in vain.

Penalties for Minor Infractions.

The early dwellers in Massachusetts Hall were hedged around by many rules. They were subject to fines for petty offenses. One scale of such fines reads:

Absence from prayers, 2 pennies.

Absence from public worship, 9 pennies.

Neglect to repeat sermon, 9 pennies.

Frequenting taverns, 1 shilling 6 pennies.

Profane cursing, 2 shillings 6 pennies.

Lying, 1 shilling 6 pennies.

Going upon the top of the College, 1 shilling 6 pennies.