In the early years of the 20th century, MIT was outgrowing the Back Bay buildings in which it had started and was looking to build a campus with some serious room to grow.

Among the spots it considered, before settling on Cambridge along the Charles, was what was then the Allston Golf Club. The club straddled the area that is today BU's Nickerson Field and Allston's BU-centric GAP neighborhood, between Packards Corner and what was then the Boston and Albany's Beacon Park freight yard - which Harvard now owns and wants to turn into a sort of Seaport-like area.

But the Institute seems to have taken to heart critical comments by Luzerne Cowles, an alumnus (class of '97 - 1897) who lived in the area for seven years before being driven mad - and out of the area - in his quest for a good night

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