Thinking simultaneous division of the entire undergraduate body an economic impossibility, Lowell had quietly drawn up plans for a single so-called "Honors House." This building, which he planned to build on the triangle of land formed by Massachusetts Avenue and Quincy Street opposite the Union, would be his testing plant and model for future additions. Fortunately, however, when he applied to the College Education Board for a grant he was turned down, and was still searching for a donor when Harkness appeared, fresh from his rebuff at New Haven.

The president advanced two reasons for the exclusion of freshmen from the Houses. He could see no other arrangement that would permit voluntary choice of a House instead of arbitrary appointment. He could not picture all students of one school living together in the same house but was certain of arousing resentment if all students were arbitrarily assigned. His strongest argument against freshman participation in the House Plan, however, was to permit each class to form new friendships and gain a certain unity before being separated into the Houses. On these grounds the Yard, long the domain of seniors, became freshman territory and the all-inclusive term "Yardling" was born.

After meeting with Lowell, Harkness offered three million dollars to build the Honors House, subject to the approval of the governing board and faculty. His only stipulation: that the donor remain anonymous.

Reception by the governing board was so enthusiastic that Harkness offered to finance housing the entire upperclass undergraduate body. By planning on the use of all existing buildings Lowell estimated that six or possibly seven units would be sufficient and still leave a few beds left over for a future increase in admissions. Such a plan would entail building three new structures: Dunster, Eliot and Lowell. Harkness offered $13,398,000.

Julian L. Coolidge, destined to be first Master of Lowell House, led the opposition at the faculty meeting. Jumping to his feet after Lowell had told of Harkness' proposed gift, he asked, "Does this mean, Mr. President, that we are committed to the House Plan?"

Lowell answered stiffly. "I do not know whether we are committed or not, but that is what I mean to do." That evening he reported to Harkness the faculty had accepted his gift without a dissenting vote. In typical fashion, Lowell conciliated Coolidge by appointing him one of his first two House Masters.

Alumni, who saw the death of the College in its division, and club members, who saw in it the downfall of the club system, were met with further appeasement. Profiting from Woodrow Wilson's mistake, Lowell told fearful alumni, "I am dividing to save Harvard," then convinced the clubs they would gain in importance with the addition of the Houses. He pictured the buildings along Mt. Auburn Street as serving the function of bringing men of different Houses together and thus somehow preserving the entity of the College. His main argument was that if club men wanted to stay out, they could. The Houses would have voluntary membership. Meals were to be arranged so that all House members could eat out without paying a certain amount of the time.

American Georgian Design

The existing freshman dormitories along the river and the buildings now composing most of Adams House were of course standing long before Dunster, Eliot, and Lowell were even designed. The older buildings, Winthrop, Kirkland, Leverett, however, were without the dining rooms, libraries and common rooms necessary for House living. Work was begun first on Dunster and Lowell, so the older units were not ready for occupancy until a year after Dunster and Lowell had begun operation.

Construction of the three new buildings climaxed the College's march toward the river. Designed by Bullfinch in American Georgian, they were to avoid standardization, yet give a motley collection of University buildings some sense of continuity. Lowell residents, many of whose quarters are uniquely contorted, claim that President Lowell asked well-known artists to submit paintings of attractive buildings, then, picking out the one he liked best, he told Bullfinch to stick rooms in it.

Dunster and Lowell were to serve as the two extremes of the Plan. Lowell was given a raised dais and designated the "formal" house; Dunster was given its sunken garden and called the "democratic" house. This weak stab at immediate characterization never materialized. For when the other Houses opened the next year no such attempts were made to give them distinctive character. On September 30, 1930 the first two opened with 240 in Dunster and 300 in Lowell, all students living in singles and doubles.

Hot Competition

Chester Greenough, former Dean of Students, and Coolidge, the first two Masters, were instructed to pick out the boys they desired and try to persuade them to join their Houses. Although Coolidge together with Merriman of Eliot was to enjoy the position of heading one of the two most popular houses in Cambridge through most of the 1930's, Dunster under Greenough got off to the better start. Apparently Greenough promised all-American quarterback Barry Wood an entire entry for himself and his friends if he would choose Dunster. Master Coolidge, as head of the Watch and Ward Society, simultaneously helped the initial swing to the river House by severely fining a Cambridge bookstore for selling banned copies of Lady Chatterly's Lover.

In the fall of 1931 remaining Houses opened, and Eliot, built on the site of the vacated Boston Elevated Railway power plant immediately catapulted to the front in popularity. At the other Houses, Winthrop's Ronald M. Ferry, last of the original masters, finally accepted the application of a room of four doubtful freshmen in poor standing. One of the four was later dismissed, but two of the others became successive varsity football captains. In such a fashion was a House reputation born and the ideal cross-section of the student body soon warped. Leverett, for instance, with Professor Kenneth B. Murdock as master soon began to attract a large percentage of the College's English concentrators. On the other extreme, Dunster with three top economics tutors found itself in 1932 with only two economics concentrators in the House.

By the year 1932-33, the most pressing problem of the House Plan had become that of assigning students to Houses. A Central Committee, headed by Dean Hanford, had been set-up to secure an equal intermingling of all seven units, but the Student Council in its first survey of the plan in 1933 reported that negotiations between freshmen and House representatives had proved unsatisfactory.