Graham and her allies were worried Harvard would encroach deeper into their neighborhood. They had been aiming to elicit a promise that the University’s expansion would not cross Putnam Avenue—a major thoroughfare that runs through Riverside two blocks in from Memorial Drive.

But the Corporation refused to meet with them.

Graham recalls that it was only as an “afterthought” that she and 50 others interrupted the Commencement exercises. They brought their own megaphones and even seized the microphone from the graduation speaker.

“Some of the students had signs saying ‘Get out of Vietnam’ and also ‘Get out of Riverside,’” Graham says.

Although then-University President Nathan M. Pusey ’28 took the microphone away from her, Graham says her tactics worked.

“From that point on, Harvard talked to us,” she says.

Much has changed for Graham and for Riverside, but the hot issue—Harvard growth—has not lost its heat.

Residents have not forgotten what the University has done in the past—“Peabody Terrace blocks everything,” Graham says—and the latest developments have kept the anger alive.

When Harvard announced its intention to replace Mahoney’s, the community reacted with “serious fury,” recalls resident Cob Carlson.

The Riverside neighbors took their fight to the city council, where they requested and received a moratorium on building until the neighborhood has figured out how much of Harvard it will tolerate—and for the time being, residents’ anger is only simmering.

“It hasn’t felt like a crisis situation yet,” Carlson says. “They’ll come out of the woodwork and unleash some of that fury and anger if a shovel is planted into the ground.”

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.