Page 4 - Sigma Chi - MIT Fall 2018

PAGE FOUR THE BEAVER SIG

100 Years at 532
Beacon

(continued from page one)
on 532 Beacon
Street.
Thresher later
taught economics at
MIT before serving as MIT in 1919 from the Harvard Bridge.
director of admissions
for 25 years. He also 1975, he was kind enough to Alpha Theta. We can only hope home to Alpha Theta Sigma
served on the board share some of his memories in he would be proud of the work Chi.
of trustees for Alpha a letter to the undergraduates done to restore 532 Beacon In hoc,
Prof. Bat Thresher Theta for 30 years. In
1918 in 1930. about this formative time for Street for its next 100 years as Dan Craig ’03

June 27, 1975 Boylston Street subway
cars surfaced at Arlington,
Dear Mike: proceeded to their surface
In response to your letter of May 27, divergence to Beacon and
which has just reached me, I am glad to write Commonwealth. This later
down a few random reminiscences that come brought fearful congestion
to my mind. You can select from them any as auto traffic grew, and
that you think might be of interest to the getting Kenmore tracks all
modern age. underground was a major
I entered MIT in September 1914, which operation. Student cars
put me in the class of 1918, but two and were a rarity, so we used the
a half years later the war threw everything subway or walked to Copley
into confusion so that I graduated as of 1920 Square.
(actually in March of that year). I did, how- I pledged Sigma Chi in
ever, have the inestimable privilege of two October and moved into
years in the old MIT at Copley Square. Of the house, which only held
course, the buildings were long outdated, 20 or so, and a few lived 532 Beacon Street’s pipe organ.
crowded, and inadequate, but Boston in those outside. Meals had a pleas-
days was a thoroughly civilized place, and ant patriarchal flavor, with a T-shaped table, member of the chapter to see the 532 Beacon
Copley square had a charm all its own that and Whit Brown 1915 as consul carving at Street house.
sheds glamour over the memory. So the most the head. There was a wind-up Victrola in As consul, I made a few trips around the
squalid rookeries of Paris or Göttingen have the front hall, and a good supply of 78 rpm Back Bay with John B. McPherson, chairman
acquired a glow in retrospect for the students records. Electric pick-up was then unknown, of the chapter trustees. In contrast with the
who inhabited them. but it still sounded pretty good, at least to our housing shortage after World War II, there
We all wore high laced shoes (with hooks uncritical ears. Caruso sounded like Caruso were a number of vacancies, and 532 looked
inserted in the top four holes), felt hats (only all right, singing Tosti’s Addio and the street to us like the best bet. The house had been
a few rare eccentrics went hatless), vests, and song from Naughty Marietta (Victor Herberg) vacant two or three years but was in fair con-
detachable starched collars fastened front and sounded just as it does still. Alexander’s dition. We took out of storage the furniture
rear by means of brass collar buttons. Shirts Ragtime Band was in full swing, likewise Oh from 1067, bought some more, and moved in
with attached collars began to appear only a You Beautiful Doll. very soon. Exact dates and details of financing
few years later, as did the Herbert Hoover col- After the armistice of November 11, have faded from my memory, but it was a
lar with rounded corners. Vests disappeared 1918, demobilization proceeded rapidly, and rental arrangement and I think it was 10 years
in summer, and straw boaters appeared. those of us who fought the war on this side of or more [actually, only five—ed.] before the
Student beards were unknown, and only a the Atlantic got our discharges beginning in chapter purchased the house. It had belonged
few professors wore them, usually in the form December and January, so when the second to Thomas Lamont, the financier [actually,
of decorous goatees, though one who had semester opened late in January there were a it was Francis W. Kittredge, the lawyer and
a really opulent brown beard was known as good many members of the chapter looking politician—ed.] and followed the somewhat
“Creeping Jesus.” for a place to live, the Brookline house having pretentious Back Bay style of the 1890s, e.g.
The Sigma Chi house in those days was been vacated earlier. We took quite a number the columns in the second floor living room
at 1067 Beacon Street, between Carlton of rooms in the old Fritz Carlton Hotel (it and the really beautiful pipe organ in the
and Hawes Sts. This put it in Brookline, seems hard to believe, but that was its name) lower hall. This last was greatly admired and
just beyond the Boston city limits. The DU on Boylston Street between Massachusetts was regarded as a rushing asset. Now and
house was next door, and SAE across Beacon Avenue and the Fenway. Perhaps it still then we would have a member who was a
at the corner of Carlton. Most of the oth- stands, but not under that name. So we had a real musician and was also willing to make
ers were in the Back Bay. At that time, the nucleus for the chapter. I think I was the first (continued on next page)