Jesuits Accused
One afternoon he stuffed the cotton curtain between the wall and a smoke pipe that ran through the classroom. Early the next morning the chilly instructor lit a fire in the stove and in a few minutes found the curtain in flames. A student on his way to prayers at Appleton Chapel noticed the smoke, and University Hall was saved from serious damage. But the teacher, admired by Faculty and students, insisted that Jesuits had been pursuing him for a long time and had now resorted to means harmful to the property of the University. The deluded gentleman submitted his resignation and was never convinced to reconsider.
Eliot Recalls Fires
President Eliot himself was affected by two typical dormitory conflagrations caused by student carelessness. One night a classmate of Eliot, who was then an undergraduate in Holworthy Hall, was careless in feeding his "camphene" lamp, which suddenly burst into flames. The fire was doused with little trouble, however, as was one in a Hollis room below Eliot's a year later.
"Harvard has had innumerable escapes from fire losses," President-emeritius Eliot reported in 1914. One example was a blaze in the Dane Hall law library. A week earlier there had arrived in Cambridge a chemical fire engine-a gift from the President and Fellows of Harvard University-which rushed from Central Square to save the building.
On another occasion a professor was alert enough to douse sudden flames in a wastebasket in his office in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. If he had not been there, gallons of inflammable alcohol would have caught fire and destroyed the building.
These and several other fires induced the Corporation to take precautions. After 1880 it asked for fire-proof or slow-burning materials in all new construction. Fire escapes were built, cellars cleaned, hydrants added, and fire walls extended. A question of how much fire insurance is feasible for a university was frequently discussed by the Corporation. At the turn of the century the best solution was to place valuable collections in fireproof buildings and to increase night watchman details.
Fires at Harvard seem to come in mysterious series. The Fly Club had two fires within a month in 1932; Hollis and Stoughton burned in rapid succession in the eighteen-seventies; every Final Club has had fire damage since the twenties; and Memorial Hall has been victim of flames periodically.
During the month of March, 1951, the whole University seemed about to go up in flames. It was a anxious time for the Administration and many dormitory residents. On the first Saturday of the month, a Claverly Hall blaze forced students out of bed and into the street. Damages were set at $65,000 by fire marshals, who suspected that the blaze was intentionally started in a closer. Irate students blamed the University for irresponsibility in connection with the fire. Harvard, in turn, announced that it was under contract for the rooms and could take no responsibility for damages to student property in case of fires. The following Monday a second serious blaze arose at Claverly. There was no connection between the two fires-both seemingly intentionally set-the Fire Department officials claimed, but they