By 1902 they had subscribed $100,000, the estimated cost for the above-ground structure. Engineers figured the foundations would cost $75,000, and the H.A.A. put up the balance.
In 1902 the New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White began drawing up plans for a fireproof building, to be made of steel, brick, and concrete.
Early in 1903, rolls of completed blueprints were rushed up to Boston. Experts in the College's engineering department conducted laboratory experiments through the Spring, and finally decided a cement beam with twisted steel rods running through it would be stronger and cheaper than either stone, brick, or steel. This reinforced concrete was used throughout the structure.
Boston's Aberthaw Construction Company was given the order to begin work, and on Class Day, June 22, 1903, the ground was broken at the site of the structure. Surveys of the field were made that same day.
When all the preliminaries were completed, the construction crew razed the old stands and set up on the spot a complete outdoor foundry for casting cement slabs. A stone crusher, a cement mixer, a narrow-gauge railway running around the field, derrick towers, travelling cranes, and a fully-equipped saw mill were all set up.
The Stadium was completed in time for the Dartmouth game of 1903, and this New-World colosseum had its first full house a week later, when 38,400 people jammed its seats to see the Crimson play Yale.
According to Professor Lewis J. Johnson's article in a 1914 issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, "It may be best to draw a veil over the results of those two games." The Crimson didn't win a game in the Stadium during its maiden year. After losing to Dartmouth, it lost, 16-0, to Yale.
But the following year, the Crimson registered five consecutive wins at the Stadium. Not until 1906, however, did it again beat Dartmouth, by a score of 22-9. Both in '04 and in '05, the Big Green had tied the Crimson, 0-0 and 6-6.
Yale trounced her traditional foe four straight times in the Stadium. But in 1911, the Crimson held Yale to a scoreless tie on Stadium ground, and in 1913 finally won, 15-5.
In 1909, the Class of 1879 donated additional money for completion of the Stadium. A covered promenade and towers--which one Boston paper called "the crowning architectural feature of the Stadium"--were added.
By that time the Stadium had cost a total of $345,000. It reached a total length of 585 feet and was 440 feet wide.
In 1908, however, it seemed the Transcript's statement that the Stadium was "sturdy enough to last till Harvard boat Yale" would be proved wrong.
At that time, a Boston newspaper reported the "appearance of dangerous looking cracks at the points of greatest strain in Harvard's expensive Stadium." The newspaper said there existed "the suspicion that the immense structure is deemed to a speedier dissolution than the supporters of the officiency of concrete construction will be willing to admit."
A crew of engineers examined the cracks, found them minor, and buttressed them with concrete. Major repairs on the Stadium were not effected until 1951, when the entire ferro-concrete structure was reinforced.
In 1929, the College made its last major addition to the Stadium. Ever since 1914, when Yale built its enormous Bowl, envious Harvard eyes had been trained on New Haven. When in 1928 track meet drew overflow crowds, University authorities decided it was time to set up additional seating.
Permanent steel stands, accommodating 18,000 and costing $175,000 were decided upon. The College commissioned the firm of Coolidge, Shepley, Bulilnch and Abbott to draw up the plans.
To solve the problem of fire prevention, engineers treated all wood used in the stands with a special fire-resistent chemical. In all, 200,000 board feet of lumber, 650 tons of structural steel, and 200,000 bolts, nuts, and screws went into the making of the additional stands.
But the permanent steel stands proved only temporary. A brief 22 years after it put them up, Harvard decided it no longer needed them. The steel stands were tern down in 1951, once again giving the Stadium its classical horseshoe shape and reducing its seating capacity from 57,000 to 38,000. Sections of the steel stands have reappeared of late in so undignified a locale as the Little League Park in Medfield, behind the first and third base lines