With architectural design that spans the centuries, Cambridge, Massachusetts is a place that provides residents with unique buildings to call home, and visitors with designs to marvel. Traditional Cambridge historic sites can be found in the city, along with modern, daring examples of architectural genius. Below you will find some of the most notable of these historic sites, many of which were designed by award-winning architects. If you’re looking for something to do in Cambridge, make sure you visit one of these beautiful historical sites.
Courtesy of Harvard University
In 1870, Memorial Hall was built at Harvard University in honor of graduates who had fought during the Civil War. For years prior, a fundraising committee had raised $370,000 (at the time equal to 1/12 of Harvard’s endowment) for the project. Following a $40,000 gift from Charles Sanders, Harvard class of 1802, enough money had been raised for a building that would serve as both a lecture hall and performance space. The building is of the High Victorian Gothic style, made of brick, and is located at 45 Quincy Street near Harvard square. Particularly notable are the 22 stained glass windows that fill the inside with light and color.
Picturesquely located on the banks of the Charles River, the Weld Boathouse is today home to Harvard’s heavyweight and lightweight women’s crew teams. Named for George Walker Weld, the boathouse was constructed in 1906 and is a majestic sight as you view it from across the river in Boston. With a burnt red roof and elegant design, the boathouse looks more like the private home of Cambridge’s 19th century elite than an athletic facility. Still, on many afternoons during the fall and spring you can see some of Harvard’s women launching their boats from the docks.
Picture courtesy of Patricia Sampson
Stand across from the Stata Center at 32 Vassar Street and you will be questioning whether your mind is intact. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, the building opened in 2004 and features walls that seem to defy gravity by jutting out in asymmetrical, curved patterns, with towers that split and lean, painted in a color pallet that is anything but traditional. The structure has 720,000 square feet of academic space and offers alternative meeting and study areas. Financed in large part by Ray and Maria Stata along with Bill Gates, Alexander Dreyfoos Jr., and Morris Chang, the Strata Center is a dizzying example of the extremes of architectural exploration.
The Longfellow House obtained its name from its famous resident, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who lived there from 1837-1882. Longfellow was frequently visited at his home by notable academics and philosophers of the time: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Charles Dickens. Prior to his acquisition of the home, though, the Longfellow House provided refuge to many important leaders during the Revolutionary War. George Washington used the house as his headquarters for more than nine months during the siege of Boston. Today, the Longfellow House is protected by the National Park Service and many of the poet’s possessions are where he left them when he died in 1882. You can find the house at 105 Brattle Street.
Courtesy of Historic New England
The oldest house still standing in Cambridge, the Cooper-Frost-Austin House was built in 1681 by Samuel Cooper. Owned by the same family for over 250 years, the house underwent numerous expansions but the original “lean-to half-house” is still in existence today. An exemplary part of the American historical landscape, this historic site was acquired by Historic New England in 1912 and is open to the public on select days at 21 Linnaean Street.
From the outside, MIT’s chapel is quietly peculiar – a round, windowless, brick building seemingly plopped down in the middle of campus. But go inside, and the chapel’s intimate feeling, complimented by a large glass skylight from which a sparkling metal sculpture hangs down to nearly touch the altar below, immediately reminds you of the building’s non-denominational purpose. Dedicated in 1955, the building was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Eero Saarinen. Often regarded as an excellent example of Mid-Century Modern architecture in the U.S., the MIT chapel is a uniquely spiritual place in Cambridge. The address of this historical site is 48 Massachusetts Avenue, in the rear.
The Harvard Lampoon has been published by undergraduates since 1876 and is a humor magazine with a number of famous alumni – John Updike, Conan O’Brien and James Murdoch to name a few. The Lampoon’s building is often described as a “satirical castle”, located in the middle of a fork in the road. The building was designed by Harvard grad and Lampoon alum Edmund M. Wheelwright, and from the front resembles a human face wearing a Prussian helmet.
