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<p>The supposedly true condition Mrs. Widener imposed was, in order to prevent having the library remodeled and renamed for some later donor, that if Harvard ever moved “brick or mortar” in the library then the ownership of the building and ground beneath it would revert to the city of Cambridge. So when the school sought to link Widener library with another library via a tunnel they had to knock out a large window to create an entrance to avoid disturbing any bricks. I believe the connecting tunnel was torn out a few years ago. So I don’t know what the tour guides say now.</p>
<p>Another Harvard tour guide myth is that, because the lower floors of the Massachusetts Hall dorm house the president’s and other administrative offices, the students living on the upper floors are handpicked as especially quiet and trouble-free. Thanks to my daughter living there I got meet a whole bunch of Mass Hall kids. And, as much as I’d like to think my daughter is so wonderful that she was somehow “handpicked,” I can attest that Mass Hall kids weren’t any quieter or less troublesome than any other college kids. </p>
<p>My daughter was in fact slightly offended by this goody-two-shoes myth and once when she overheard a tour guide repeating it she stopped to correct him and dispel the myth, which of course cut into the guide’s act and knocked him off his stride. She felt horrible about this, apologized, and vowed to never interrupt another guide. She realized it was probably better to let them continue with the myth.</p>