#122 Harvard and MIT 7-16-09

Yesterday was moving day. We left Wompatuck State Park and drove a short distance to the Lexington Elks Lodge. There aren’t any hook-ups, but they have a large parking lot with a nice grassy field behind.

Today is Thursday, and we are going to get “Ed-i-kated.” We drove to the Alewife T station and caught the subway into Harvard. They have student led tours, and we caught the 11:00 am tour. We had a really cute tour guide who is an art major at Harvard. She is a “rising” Junior. There were about 20 people in the group and she told about the buildings, student life, and some history.

We entered through a gate and into the common area. This area is surrounded by freshmen dorms, administrative offices, and a few of the classrooms.

The building above is the oldest building on campus. The grassy area in the commons was set aside for the teachers to use to keep their livestock in during the 17th century. The rule is still on the books. We didn’t see any sheep, but we were told to look out for them.

The building you see through the gate is the science building. It looks like a giant camera.

I thought the building we were approaching was the chapel or church. But it is the Memorial Building.

This is the center hall of the building. The wood work is magnificent and it houses the largest collection of sectarian stained glass in the US. There is a large lecture hall on one side and the other side is a dining area. We could look inside through a window in the door, but couldn’t go in. There were students eating their lunch while we were on the tour. The dining room looked like the Harry Potter dining hall at Hogwarts!

This plaque tells about why the building is called the Memorial building. And to those who it is dedicated to.

Ah, a familiar name to those of us who live in the Coachella Valley. Our guide had no idea who this was. I’m sure it must have been Ambassador Annenberg that is was named after.

This is an interesting story. The statue above is supposed to be John Harvard, The plaque below says it’s him, but our guide, Colleen, told us there was never any photos or pictures of John Harvard, so one of the students at the time this bronze statue was made posed for it.

Colleen told us that a neat place to eat was Barkley’s. It is an institution around Harvard. They do serve great hamburgers, and we were fortunate enough to get right in and get a table for lunch. By the time we left the line was two stores down. And the hamburger was really good.

We walked around Harvard Square. I took the picture of the street sign. I didn’t see any buildings named after JFK, but he does have a street named for him.

At the news stand you can get magazines and papers in all kinds of different languages, and from all over the world.

Of course, there has to be a Harvard Book store. I liked the balconies above it.

While waiting for the bus to take us to MIT, which isn’t very far away, I couldn’t help but take a picture of this cute little store front. It looks like a piece of furniture stuck between two buildings.

We caught a bus and rode down or up, Massachusetts Ave right to the door step of MIT.

Did you know that both MIT and Harvard are on the Charles River? MIT covers a lot more ground. On this tour it seemed like we walked for miles.

The bus dropped us off right in front of this building. We definitely knew where we were. We had about an hour to wait for the next student led tour, so we went across the street to the student center, found a couple of comfortable chairs and relaxed.

Our tour started by walking down dormitory row. These are just a couple of the dorms. There are over 6,000 students and grad students attending school here. Below is a “frat” house. It is just one block off the dorm row.

We were able to visit Baker House and go into an empty dorm room. This is a double, so there is another bed on the opposite side of the room. The next picture is of the common area, where the students meet and socialize.

The building below is exactly 1/8 of a full circle. It is supported by just the three corners. It is quite an engineering feat. It houses lecture halls and performing arts centers.

Our tour guide called the picture below the “infinity” hall. It is well used to get from one building the another. This building houses classrooms, administrative offices, the visitor center and some displays.

The famous dome of MIT. Right now it is covered with scaffolding. They are making it leak proof. I think they started a little late, its been raining for two months now. This is the roof where there are lots of “hacks” pulled. A hack is a practical joke that is subtle and harmless. Our tour guide told us of many such hacks that she has seen, or heard about.

The interesting story about this building is that there is an ordinance that no building can be built higher than so many stories, I can’t remember how many. But MIT wanted to have the tallest building so the architect came up with the idea of building the building on stilts, and then made the first story a very high ceiling lecture room. So when it was finished it was the tallest building around. There are some taller now.

This must be everyone’s favorite building. There is not a 90 degree angle anywhere. It is odd shaped, and very colorful. We walked through it and it does make sense inside.

Below is the infamous police car that was put on top of the dome. No one knows how it got there because the opening to the top of the dome is no bigger than a doorway. But, when they found the car the lights were spinning, there was a dummy dressed like a cop in the drivers seat, there was a box of donuts on the passenger seat and the coffee was still hot! That was a great hack!

It is time to go home now. Here comes our subway train. We are taking the red line back to Alewife. Hopefully we are now a little better educated!