Although no definite decision has as yet been officially made regarding the ultimate disposition of Memorial Hall, the Western room of the familiar Civil War building will probably be used to house permanent University records, it was learned yesterday.
In order to render the room fireproof, plans are now under way to remove the wooden paneling which conceals heavy brick walls on three sides of the hall. The wooden beams which support the roof will be replaced by steel beams, and, taking the present stone floor into consideration, the room will be rendered almost completely free from a fire risk by the alterations.
The University records are at present scattered throughout various parts of the cities of Boston and Cambridge, and many of the most important of them have been lost or destroyed through lack of centralization and organization, it was stated in authoritative circles.
The plan for converting Memorial Hall into a graduate school dining room has failed because of insufficient response by students to questionnaires sent out by the University. Unless the University can be guaranteed a specified amount of patronage, the operation of such a project will not be undertaken.
The other plan advanced recently was to make the Western room into an extension of the Fogg Art Museum, but the plan will probably not materialize because of the more pressing need for a central clearing house for University records.
The actual date of the rehabilitation of the Hall has not been announced; the present maintenance cost of the Hall is a nominal sum, and it has been used extensively as an examination room during recent years.
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Fogg Museum