We thought it would be fun to report on something on the lighter side as we enter the holiday season. With the close of the first semester and Christmas vacation looming, it’s noticeable that college students have decamped for home. Apropos of students, we found this letter in the Ellis/Andrews files in 1903, dated September 10:
Dear Sir:
Last spring the authorities of Harvard University caused to be removed from all their buildings occupied by students the signs, notices, and other objects which had obviously been taken from the streets, shops, cars, or other grounds or buildings not belonging to the students who displayed these objects in their rooms, and gave notice to all the occupants of College rooms that no such objects Could hereafter be displayed in buildings belonging to the University. I hereby request you to enforce a similar regulation in the buildings which are under your management, and are occupied by students of the University. Will you kindly acknowledge the receipt of this request? It is desirable that notice of this measure should be given to students who occupy rooms under your control, and their co-operation procured in the abandonment of a practice which is not creditable to the intelligence and good feeling of University students.
Very Truly Yours,
Charles W. Eliot
President Harvard University
Why was President Eliot writing to Ellis & Melledge? Because the firm was in the business of renting rooms to students. William R. Ellis had been advertising his “Registry of Student’s Rooms” from the start—as seen in this advertisement:
In 1893, Robert J. Melledge had joined the firm, which now became “Ellis & Melledge.” Melledge owned a piece of property with a house at the corner of Prescott St and Broadway. In 1893, Ellis was renting the house—listed variously over the years in maps and directories as #22 Prescott Street or #472 Broadway—even up until 1927. Ellis and Melledge planned to erect a new apartment building facing the Broadway side of the property in front of the house, aimed solely at the Harvard student population. By the time the apartments opened in 1896, the building was referred to as “the latest new college dormitory,” even though it was not (yet) owned by Harvard. This was “Prescott Hall” at 472-474 Broadway, corner of Prescott St, which was named for Prescott William Hickling (1798-1859)[i], an historian who specialized in the history of Spain and its empire.
On May 4, 1896, the Cambridge Chronicle ran two separate columns on the building, designed by architect Arthur H. Bowditch. One stated that “it will not be gorgeous, but architecturally it will be the most attractive dormitory in Cambridge.” The article went on to describe the rooms:
“…all the suites will be precisely alike, a large study and two bed rooms, but the building is to be modern and with modern comforts. The studies fact south and west and will be sunny all day; the bed rooms face north and east; each suite has its private hall with coat closet; each room has a closet. The studies…all have bay windows the entire width of the room, with the deep-armed window seats so popular with students. The rooms are heated by steam, and in the studies are large open fireplaces for wood fires. Each suite is to have a perfectly appointed bathroom with the best of modern open plumbing…every bathroom has an outside sunny window. The building will be piped for gas and wired for electric light….”
Talk about having all the “mod/cons!” Not only that, but:
“…There will be a large room [in the basement] …for the storage of bicycles, also storage for trunks; telephone room, boot blacking stand, ample rooms for janitor and wife, and for the “goodies” who take care of the rooms: also a large room…with open -fireplace; this room for the use of the tenants for boxing, fencing or light exercise; some simple gymnastic apparatus will be supplied, also lockers and adjoining will be dressing room and shower bath.”
Rents for a three-room suite were described as “moderate” with most suites renting for around $450.
The second article emphasized the quality of students expected to rent. The rental agents (Ellis & Melledge) “are instructed, in leasing suites, to endeavor to avoid discordant elements, and the location and arrangements will no doubt attract students of a studious turn of mind.” Harrumph.
It wasn’t unusual to have private dormitories for students built by private investors[ii] rather than the university itself. At the turn of the century, Harvard provided housing only for seniors in Harvard Yard. Hence the housing needs for students (and faculty and staff) were drivers in the real estate market. As stated in Building Old Cambridge, “Investors…constructed about twenty-five private dormitories around the Square between 1876 and 1904.”[iii] Undergrads had to fend for themselves finding housing. It wasn’t until Harvard required undergrads to live on campus (in 1914) that the private dormitories were either converted to apartment houses, as was the case with Prescott Hall, or bought outright by the University.
In 1898, The Cambridge Tribune ran an article about these private dormitories, citing one unnamed project in progress, and five others that existed between Mt. Auburn St and Mass Ave alone.
We find an interesting side fact in The Cambridge Tribune of August 24, 1901. A column extolling the virtues of an up and coming 26-year-old real estate and insurance whipper snapper named George Carrick. Apparently, an astonishing number of these private dormitories were managed by him. “He is the one real estateman [sic] in Cambridge today who stands in touch with the students of Harvard University and the business interests of the city, thus uniting the town and the gown. Mr. Carrick has under his charge some of the choicest suites in the choicest dormitories at Harvard, and he is the only man in town who makes a special business of that work…. the students were glad to find a man who could appreciate their needs and give them what they desired.” Wonder what Ellis and Melledge thought about that statement!
Other Housing and Dining Accommodations for Students
Ellis & Melledge received many requests from parents looking for houses positioned close by Harvard, suitable for the entire family, or for use as a student rooming houses. The dormitory-building boom in the late 1890s and early 1900s caused a financial squeeze on those families whose main source of income was renting rooms to Harvard students. Many of these were single or widowed women.
In 1894, an interested party wrote to Ellis & Melledge: “I desire to locate in Cambridge this Fall, to be located before the opening of college with the idea of conducting a first class house for the accommodation of students (with meals) also nice families…”
The 1900 City Directory listed 97 “Boarding and Lodging Houses”—approximately 79 of them run by women.
Lucretia W. Ball was another fell into this category. She already owned a rooming house on 26 Holyoke Street, (run by Mrs. E. G. Brandon) when she wrote in 1915 inquiring about taking over another house that “has a bad name on account of being used for a cheap boarding house but I have 30 or 40 boys that come for rooms at 26 Holyoke St. and not being able to accomodate [sic] them there thought I might take them over there. The house on Holyoke St is an awful old house but the boys seem to like the location.” Or this woman, also writing in 1915: “It is my intention, if I can find a suitable location, to open a tea-room…I intend to run a high grade place which will appeal to the better class of students, where they can entertain their friends in a sort of semi-privacy and more comfortably than in their rooms.”
From Dormitory to Apartment Building
After the 1910s, ownership of Prescott Hall changed hands several times and perhaps as early as 1923, had been converted to an apartment building.
It was sold again in 1928, and by 1930 the extensive renovations made the news:
But let’s close this piece the way it started: on the subject of student pranks. President Eliot’s letter of 1903 was not the first time students’ antics had received attention. As we saw at the beginning of this installment, stolen street signs were a favorite choice for room décor as far back as 1883. And then there was the description of this epic episode from 1891 (this excerpt is long, but it’s so cheeky we couldn’t resist clipping out most of the article):
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
SOURCES
Cambridge Historical Commission: Ellis/Andrews Collection
Cambridge Public Library digitized newspapers and atlases
Cambridge Buildings and Architects Database, compiled by Christopher Hale
Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan
[i] Cambridge Buildings and Architects, by Christopher Haile, 2002
[ii] Building Old Cambridge, Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan (2016), pg.129
[iii] Building Old Cambridge, pg. 130
