As soon as Harvard began to consider purchasingthe property, William A. Coolidge '54 gave theUniversity $35,000 on the condition that thebuilding be leased to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuaryprovided counseling and temporary living quartersto what were then called "street people." Manyteenagers spent time at the place.

The Sanctuary remained at 74 Mt. Auburn untilthe spring of 1974, when the group terminatedtheir lease.

That decision eventually prompted a seriouscontroversy with racial overtones. As soon as theSanctuary announced it was leaving, two campusgroups who were at the time unsatisfied with theirbuildings asked the University for 74 Mt. AuburnSt.

The Hillel, then at Bryant St. near theDivinity School, wanted more space closer to themain campus. And the Harvard RadcliffeAfro-American Cultural Center-Which was at atemporary location at 20 Sacramento St. near theDudley Co-ops--also wanted a bigger buildingcloser to campus.

The Afro-American Cultural Center had beenformed after the campus riots and sit-ins of 1969.One of the protestors' demands was help in formingan Afro-American center. The University acquiescedand pledged to help the new groups raise anendowment.

But the endowment peaked at $150,000 and thenfell. With an operating budget in the tens ofthousands of dollars per year, the Afro-Americancenter was doomed to run out of money fast.

Kazana, who took over as director in the fallof 1972, said in an interview this week that shespent much of her time scrambling for more money.

Kazana said she also began to look for a newlocation. Since the space at 20 Sacramento St. wassmall, the group had to hold many activities inother buildings. And because 20 Sacramento was faraway from the middle of campus, the center hadlittle potential to become a popular hang-out forBlack undergraduates.

In January 1974, Kazana suddenly thought herproblems had been solved. The Sanctuary offeredits building to the cultural center, pendingUniversity approval.

Instead, the administration offered thecultural center the opportunity to rent a buildingthe University had an option to lease, 16-18 EliotSt. That building, which then bordered rail yardsused by the T, was in a bad area and in need of apaint job. Now it houses four brand-newrestaurants.

Kazana says this building did not meet thecenter's needs.

So the center, working in coordination withcampus minority groups, pressed the issues. Theyasked for a University-funded Third World CulturalCenter, which would absorb the Afro-AmericanCenter. The obvious choice for the Third Worldcenter would have been 74 Mt. Auburn.

The administration rejected the proposal mainlybecause they saw the organization as a studentgroup. Harvard does not directly fund studentgroups, administrators student groups,administrators said.

Advocates argued that the center, not unlikethe Fogg Art Museum, was a resource the Universityshould fund. But the administration, Ironically,compared the proposed center to the Hillel, whichdid not receive University funding.

Without the hope of a funded Third Worldcenter, the Afro-American Cultural Center hadlittle hope of restoring itself. Kazana saidHarvard made matters worth by mismanaging thecenter's endowment. Things got so bad that theadministration began paying her salary because thecenter had so little money left.