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Originally posted by lionlove
Maybe that's why Ohio U is the "Harvard on the Hocking" 
Another question, what is the connection between Ohio U and Boston? I remember my mom showed me a plaque in Boston that said something like "Here met the founders of Ohio University". Maybe there is a Harvard/Ohio U connection?
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A good point, and an excellent question -- to which, remarkably, I just happen to know the answer.
The Revolutionary War veterans who were to form the "Ohio Company of Associates" and request the charter granted by the Ordinance of 1787 met in the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston to write their proposal to the US government for the purchase of the land in the origional Northwest Territory. You can find their names on many campus buildings -- Cutler, Putnam, McGuffey.
I've often wondered if that tavern/room still existed. So thanks for that information. I'd love to try to find it next time I'm in Boston.
The bar/lounge at the Ohio University Inn, a hotel owned by the University is called "The Bunch of Grapes" room. Few people know the reason for that.
Another reason for the "Havard on the Hocking" line is that the president of O.U. when I was there, Dr. Vernon R. Alden, was a (Brown undergrad, I think) Harvard MBA, and tried to copy a lot of the traditions of the Ivy League schools. That wasn't always successful, and not always met with much enthusiasm. To be fair, though, the "Alden Years" (I narrated a documentary with that name when I was a student at the university TV station which is still in the University Archives!) were years of tremendous growth, both in student population and physical growth. Some would argue that the growth was too fast at that time.
He is still very active in university affairs, and the main library on the Athens Campus bears his name.
Aren't you sorry you asked?
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