"It's awfully difficult," Wiberg says. "For a congregation that has been in one place for almost 100 years to imagine someone else owning [the chapel]."
Administration sources this week hedged when asked about Harvard's interest in the property--the University has as much against an apartment building on the site as anyone, and could buy the site simply to keep it out of any other developer's hands.
"Given how much this development proposal has been a lightning rod for community activists, [buying the site] does a lot for Harvard as a white knight," says David A. Zewinski '76, associate dean for physical resources and planning for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The University gave its tacit agreement to the plan to make the chapel a historical landmark--but opposed protecting the interior. This could perhaps open the way to University purchase of the site and modifying the interior for academic use.