"There are many of us who have worked at Harvard only because we could get daycare for our kids," notes Kathy A. Spiegelman, associate vice president at Harvard Planning and Real Estate.

Today Moseley sings a different tune.

To accommodate the center's most vociferous opponents, the University gave residents the option to change apartments within the complex, in addition to accelerating construction and delaying its start until the conclusion of the academic year.

"I was moved into an apartment that was way the other end [of the complex]," Moseley says. "[The center] doesn't disturb me at all. There was a lot of negotiation but eventually they came up with a deal that I considered quite reasonable and an apartment came up that was...actually as far away as you could possibly be."

The apartment complex is large enough to allow Moseley and others concerned about noise to reside far from the playground cacophony. Today, children from the older age group, ages three and four, are shouting as they chip the ice from a recent snowfall off their play equipment.

The center--one of the few University daycare facilities built from the ground up, according to Mary H. Power, Harvard's director of community relations for Cambridge--is state-of-the-art, boasting numerous accommodations for small children and their special needs.

The development of the child care center was an unusual triple collaboration by HLS, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and University president Neil L. Rudenstine.

Rudenstine and HLS cobbled together the funds for the project. Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles entered FAS into an agreement that provides "ongoing operational support and annual subsidies to the center" according to Mary A. Cronin, director at the Harvard Office of Human Resources.

Apple Pie and Shaving Cream

After all the time spent planning and moving, the adults closest to the project seem as pleased as the children that bounce around the center.

"After two years of zoning board Meetings, snowstorms, community meetings and negotiations with Harvard...we can't believe it's over and that it's working so well," says Lynne M. Shirey, bibliographer for Latin American law at HLS' Langdell Library and the current head of the Botanic Gardens center's board of directors.

Caregivers and their charges are settling into their new home.

"It's really been up and running just over a month," Cronin says. "As far as I know, there have been no major moving-in kind of issues."

Caregivers say they have attempted to provide continuity for the toddlers. Lessons in toiler-training and telling time have continued after the move.

"Have you gone to the bathroom yet, Daniel?" one of the caregiver asks a toddler.