Special:Badtitle/NS90:Oral-History talk:Art Fong/"Harvard Building"

Either in the transcript, or in Art Fong's memory, there was an error regarding the Navy radar school.

The transcript says:

(quote) MIT recognized that, and the first thing they did was send us up to a radar school that was given by the Navy, at downtown Boston in the Harvard Building. I believe it was for seven weeks.

Goldstein:

In which building?

Fong:

The Harvard Building downtown in Boston, near the Winter Subway Station. (end quote)

Fong is referring to the MIT Radar school. A good description of the school is in the Historical Note of the MIT Radar School collection, https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/pdf/mc633.pdf . It states that in 1942 the school - serving both Army and Navy - moved to 470 Atlantic Street on Boston's downtown waterfront. This building is referred to as the "Harbor Building", not "Harvard Building".

I'm not sure about Art Fong's mention of Winter Subway Station. Current Downtown Crossing Station was formerly known by the names of it's platforms, on Winter Street, Summer Street, and Washington Street. But that is not nearby 470 Atlantic Street. I wonder if he was mixing it up with the South Station which was a few blocks from the Harbor Building on Summer Street (which becomes Winter Street).

-- Rob Ketcherside, roket at gwu.edu