Primary Sources – Lathrop Brown Letter

The following letter, written by FDR's Harvard roommate Lathrop Brown, was discovered in the Adams House Archives, and is the result of a somewhat frantic search by then Adams House Master Reuben Brower to discover the precise location of FDR's student rooms ahead of Eleanor Roosevelt's planned arrival to dedicate a plaque to mark the suite. After Harvard acquired the privately owned Westmorly Court in the 1920's, the rooms were renumbered, resulting in confusion 30 years later as to which had been Suite 27, the number noted in FDR's correspondence. Fortunately Lathrop Brown remembered precisely, as this letter shows, though why the ground floor suite was originally labeled 27 is still a mystery.