This schoolhouse-like building at the corner of
Boylston and Clarendon streets near Copley Square
is long gone, but it played a key role in Boston
University's move to the Charles River Campus. It
was originally part of MIT, and when that
institution moved to Cambridge, BU rented 525
Boylston and moved in the College of Business
Administration (now SMG) and other departments.
Dean George Makechnie recalls that when plans were
made in the 1930s to raze the building for the
construction of the New England Life headquarters,
BU received an eviction notice. President Daniel
Marsh saw this as a unique moment to push hard for
his dream of moving BU west of Kenmore Square.
"Only the stubbornness and audacity of Dan Marsh --
in the Depression! -- made it possible for the
school to come out here," says Makechnie. "And
Marsh had to fight the CBA dean, E. Everett Lord,
who said, 'It is ridiculous to take a school of
business out into the country.'" To the country it
did come, with the first new building on the
Charles River Campus opening its doors in June
1939. Photo from the 1924 Syllabus yearbook.
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