HALLS OF NAME
LEVERONE FIELD HOUSE
Grabbing lunch in the days of poodle skirts and Brylcreem would often mean dropping two nickels into slots for a plate of mac-and-cheese—and hot coffee. Delivering it, frequently, was the Automatic Canteen Cos., founded by Nathaniel Leverone, class of 1906, who by the mid-1950s operated about 300,000 cafeteria-magnitude vending machines across the country.
Like the trend that fueled his business, the design of Leverone's standout contribution to campus—a soaring field house dedicated in May 1963, six years before his deathseems firmly intertwined with the Space Age. Consider its smoothly arching semi-circular profile, which recalls World War 11-era Quonset huts. Or the diamond-shaped precastconcrete ribs underpinning the building's 62-foot barrel vaulted ceiling. Pier Luigi Nervi, the Italian engineer who created them, used similar forms in 20th-century architectural landmarks such as Manhattan's Port Authority bus ter- minal and Rome's Palazzetto dello Sporto, which played host to the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Leverone, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa, was no stranger to superlatives. His $1.5 million field house, which covers more than two acres, was to that point the largest college facility of its type.
Were he alive today, Leverone would no doubt enjoy watching runners, rugby players, and Frisbee tossers stave off harsh weather courtesy of the shelter the bequest built. He was a gung-ho sports fan, unofficially holding the record for the most consecutive Harvard-Dartmouth football games attended (66), showing up every fall in the bleachers of the football field from 1902 to 1968.
