HSA 65th Anniversary Book

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FEBRUARY 1, 1996 –
JANUARY 31, 1997
A new home — and home page
PRESIDENT
Matthew
Heid
OFFICES
53A Church St.
1 Story St.
67 Mt. Auburn St.
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
In HSA’s last year at 53A Church St. and 1 Story St., planning and renovations for Burke-McCoy Hall (see
p. 69–70) consumed extraordinary amounts of time. The capital campaign proceeded apace, sponsoring
alum breakfasts, lunches, open houses, and a marathon daytrip to New York City in the fall. With its old
leases about to expire, HSA finally moved to 67 Mt. Auburn St. in December, but the building wasn’t quite
finished yet — forcing Let’s Go to squeeze into the Vice President’s office for a few weeks and Distribution
to run its entire operation out of two drawers in a filing cabinet.
On January 2, HSA drew the eyeballs of students circumnavigating the Holyoke Center by opening a retail
space at 17 Holyoke St., which housed Linen, The Campus Store, and Let’s Go Travel. HSA also gained
a new address in cyberspace with the launch of its very first website. With Out-House Testing’s new webdesign
service, other companies too could enjoy the tacky goodness of Web 1.0. President Matthew Heid
’96-’97 and Sarah Cannizzo ’98 compiled the company’s chaotic mass of archives into a 50-volume corporate
library for posterity — a.k.a. you.
The now-three agencies of Let’s Go, Inc., rebranded accordingly to
Let’s Go Publications, Let’s Go Ad Sales, and Let’s Go Travel. On
its way to 24 guides, Let’s Go completed Let’s Go: lndia & Nepal and
tackled South America for the first time, introducing Let’s Go: Ecuador
& the Galapagos Islands. Visitors to Chicago, Los Angeles, Rome,
Madrid, New Orleans, and Berlin rejoiced as the next installment
of Map Guides hit the streets; to handle the load, Map Editors hung
their hats for the first time. Let’s Go contracted with CNN to be
the basis for the eight kickoff segments of its “Travel Guide” series.
RWs gave miniature tours of four cities
to CNN cameras and filled the clips with
signature Let’s Go tips and wisdom.
Past Presidents and General
Managers reunite at Hail and Farewell
on February 7, 1996.
Burke-McCoy Hall
Manter Hall School occupied the building at 67 Mt. Auburn St. from the day it was built in 1927.
Established in 1884, the private school helped students prepare for Harvard’s entrance exams during the
1930s and offered four- and eight-hour review sessions before every major Harvard midterm and final
exam. During World War II, the school assisted countless students in gaining an edge on the entrance
exam for aviation cadets. After the war, Manter Hall School developed into a standard prep school for
grades nine through 12, catering to students with special educational needs. The top floor was occasionally
used as living quarters for students. Although enrollment reached a peak of 250 in the late 1940s, by 1993
only 19 students were registered. At this time, Robert Hall, the owner of the building and manager of the
school for 57 years, turned 83 and began talking to HSA.
After being displaced from its longtime residence in Thayer Hall, HSA faced greatly increased rent,
dilution across two separate offices far from the center of student activity, the pressures of continued
growth and expansion, and leases that expired at the end of 1996. Thus began the search for a permanent
home. Finding no suitable locations on the market, General Manager Richard Olken headed to Cambridge
City Hall to research the size, status, and ownership of all property in Harvard Sq. Identifying the Manter
Hall School building as having the most potential, Olken initiated conversation with Hall in the fall of
1993. Not interested in selling to the university, Hall was averse to selling to an organization that would
not use the building for educational purposes. Over the course of several meetings, however, Hall came
to understand the unique educational opportunities HSA afforded to students and decided to sell the
property to HSA in the spring of 1994. Hospitalized less than a year later, Hall passed away in the summer
of 1995.
In December 1994, Elsie’s Sandwich Shop shut down. After serving the community for more than 30
years from its corner location beneath Manter Hall School, the Harvard Sq. landmark was no more. In
1995, HSA selected Solomon and Bauer as architects, sought a new tenant to replace the departed Elsie’s,
and renamed the building Burke-McCoy Hall. Renovations commenced shortly after Manter Hall School
ceased operations in May 1996. Throughout the process, HSA dealt with the Harvard Sq. Defense Fund,
#2 heating oil, lead paint, asbestos, and brains once housed in the Manter Hall School’s biology lab. Despite
all, HSA successfully moved into the (mostly) completed building on December 8, 1996. Burke-McCoy
Hall was dedicated on February 5, 1997, and the dream of a permanent home for HSA was a reality.
The dedication of Burke-McCoy
Hall on February 5, 1997.
Dusty Burke.
LET’S GO TITLES
• Europe
• Britain & Ireland
• France
• Italy
• USA
AGENCIES
• Greece & Turkey
• Israel & Egypt
• California
• Alaska & the
Pacific Northwest
• Spain & Portugal
• Mexico
• New York City
• London
• Washington, D.C.
• Germany
• Switzerland &
Austria
• Paris
• Rome
• Ireland
• Southeast Asia
• Eastern Europe
• Central America
• India & Nepal
• Ecuador & the
Galapagos Islands
The first HSA website.
OTHER TITLES
• The Unofficial
Guide to Life
at Harvard
HSA is constantly improving Burke-McCoy Hall — even expanding within it. In 2009, the fourth floor
was converted into the Innovation Space and provided a workspace for student startups;
currently, HSA shares the floor with the wildly popular CS50 course. In 2017, the pods
on the fourth floor were blown apart to form one large event space. In the spring of 2017,
the second and third floors were totally redone, lending HSA’s main offices a more open
floor plan, new carpeting, and several coats of fresh paint. New computers, furniture,
and a wood-paneled statement wall adorn the new workspace. In August 2015, HSA
Cleaners moved into the first floor of Burke-McCoy Hall with a new retail location at
69 Mt. Auburn St., the storefront formerly occupied by the Tennis and Squash Shop.
After a succession of burrito joints, Playa Bowls now occupies the old Elsie’s space. The
basement houses the stockroom of The Harvard Shop, and enough space exists behind
the building to accommodate construction of a substantial annex for future expansion.
Robert McCoy.
• Linen
• Let’s Go Publications
• Catering
• Let’s Go Travel
• The Campus Store
• Harvard Student Resources
• Harvard Distribution
Services
• Let’s Go Ad Sales
• Harvard Graphic Design
• Out-House Testing
The interior of Burke-McCoy Hall as it
looked from 1997 to 2017.
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HSA 65th Anniversary History Book 69