Kennedy Library to Be Built at University

President Kennedy has chosen to contribute his official papers to a library to be built in Cambridge close to his alma mater.

The Kennedy Library will be constructed on University grounds, probably along the Charles River. Sites on the present MTA yards and near the Corporal Burns Playground in the Houghton area east of Dunster House have been shown to the President by a special committee from the University and the White House.

Only after his term of office will Kennedy turn over his papers to the library, which will be supported by private donations.

President Pusey met with Kennedy in June to plan for the library. Kennedy was debating among Boston, Cambridge, and Hyannis Port for possible sites, until he revealed recently that he had approved a riverside plot at Harvard.

Recent legislation has permitted Presidents to keep official documents--technically the property of the government-- for private collections.

Herbert Hoover took his papers to Stanford University, his alma mater; Franklin D. Roosevelt's collection is at Hyde Park, N.Y., his former home; the Harry S. Truman Library is in Independence, Mo.; and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library was recently completed in Abilene, Kans.

Members of the Widener Archives staff have estimated that an eight-acre area will be needed to house the Kennedy collection--even after a four-year term.

The exact location for the library has not been determined, but it is expected that Kennedy will get at least part of the MTA Yard if he wants it.

Paul H. Buck, Carl F. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library, is chairman of the special committee to plan the Kennedy Library. Serving with Buck are L. Gard Wiggins, Administrative Vice-President, and Don K. Price, Dean of the School of Public Administration and a part-time adviser to Kennedy.

Coordinating the project at the White House are Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, Special Advisor to the President and professor of History on leave; and Theodore Sorenson, Advisor to the President.

The University has been seeking to bring the Kennedy Library to Cambridge since the President first expressed an interest in finding a home for his collection.