From 1874 until 1925, Harvard undergraduates took meals in the vastness of Memorial Hall's Alumni Hall. When they departed, the place was empty most of the time; students registered, gave blood, and took examinations there, and alumni drank in the atmosphere at occasional fancy dinners. Now the grand room, splendidly refurbished and rechristened Annenberg Hall, again resounds with undergraduate imbibition and mastication. Freshmen took possession of the place in late January. Their former commons, the Harvard Union, is in the hands of the remodelers (see page 74).
Dean of the College Harry Lewis and dean of freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans cordially invited the class of '99 to an official inaugural dinner, "Celebrating a Renaissance," in Annenberg Hall on February 8. A handsome keepsake for the occasion, printed by the University publisher, listed the names of all 1,600 members of the class, presented a history of Memorial Hall, and gave the menu for dinner. The cafeteria-style feasting began with local favorites harvest barley soup or clam chowder; progressed to Chinese noodle salad; peaked with stuffed breast of chicken or prime rib or salmon filet with pineapple cilantro salsa, or a mixed grill of vegetables, pasta, and sei-tan, each with healthful "accompaniments"; and subsided with assorted mini pastries. Because the entire class cannot fit into the room at once, big though it be, seating ran from 5 to 7:30 P.M.
The keepsake distributed at the dinner also reproduced a Memorial Hall menu from the early 1900s. That offered a choice of four soups (including green turtle); four kinds of fish (plus oysters or clams); 12 broiled items (among them mutton chops, stewed kidneys in wine sauce, tripe, sweet breads, and pigs' feet); game in abundance (with prairie chicken, reed birds, canvasback duck, quail, partridge, or Lake Erie teal). Also cold dishes; beef tongues and lamb tongues. Vegetables aplenty. And for dessert, fruit in quantity, pies in variety, lemon ice cream, and assorted nuts.
Of course, waiters served these delicacies and cleaned up afterwards.
