Harvard Yard

Information about Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard with freshman dorms in the background

Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about 25 acres (0.1 kmÂ²), adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University. It contains 13 of Harvard College's seventeen freshman dormitories, as well as four libraries, five buildings of classrooms and academic departments, and the central administrative offices of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the university, located in University Hall and Massachusetts Hall, respectively.

Massachusetts Hall

The western third of Harvard Yard, which opens onto Massachusetts Avenue at Johnston Gate, is known as the Old Yard, and around it cluster most of the freshman dormitories. Among these is Massachusetts Hall, which, having been constructed in 1720, is the oldest still-standing building on Harvard's campus and oldest academic building in the United States.^[1] The lower floors of Massachusetts Hall house the offices of the President of Harvard University.

The John Harvard Statue. This monument is a frequent target of pranks, hacks, and humorous decorations, such as the colorful lei shown above. Moreover, Harvard students are rumored to urinate on the very foot that tourists rub for good luck.^[2]

Facing Massachusetts Hall is Harvard Hall. The original Harvard Hall on this site housed the College library, including the books donated by John Harvard, after whom the college and the building were named—all but one of which were destroyed when the building burned in 1764. Rebuilt in 1766, Harvard Hall now houses classrooms.

Across the Old Yard from Johnston Gate stands University Hall, and the now-famous statue of John Harvard by Daniel Chester French. The statue has earned the nickname "the statue of three lies" from its inscription, "John Harvard, Founder, 1638". In truth, the statue is not modeled after John Harvard, Mr. Harvard did not found the university, and the founding was in 1636.^[3] University Hall was the site of the now-famous sit-in and teach-in protests during the late 1960s, while Massachusetts Hall was the site of the more recent 2001 living-wage campaign sit-in.

Other buildings

The center of Harvard Yard is a wide grassy area known as Tercentenary Theater, framed by the monumental Widener Library and Memorial Church. Harvard's annual commencement exercises, as well as occasional special convocations, take place in Tercentenary Theater.

The libraries located in Harvard Yard are Widener Library, its connected Pusey Library annex, Houghton Library for rare books and manuscripts, and Lamont Library, one of the undergraduate libraries. Classroom and departmental buildings include Emerson Hall, Sever Hall, Robinson Hall, and Boylston Hall.

The freshman dormitories of Harvard Yard include the upper levels of Massachusetts Hall, and Wigglesworth Hall, Weld Hall, Grays Hall, Matthews Hall, Straus Hall, Mower Hall, Hollis Hall, Stoughton Hall, Lionel Hall, Holworthy Hall, Canaday Hall, and Thayer Hall.

Harvard Yard in 1905.

Nestled among Mower, Hollis, Lionel, and Stoughton Halls is the Holden Chapel, home of the Holden Choirs. Also in this section of the yard stands the Phillips Brooks House, designed by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., and home of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), Harvard University's center for service activities. At the southwest corner of the Yard is Lehman Hall, or Dudley House, the administrative unit for non-resident and off-campus students. Next to Lehman Hall is Wadsworth House, a canary-yellow building that houses the headquarters of the Harvard Alumni Association and the university library system. Finally, Loeb House sits on the east side; it is the site of Harvard's governing bodies, the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers.

Trivia

Harvard Yard is featured in a sentence that is used to illustrate that the Boston accent is non-rhotic (i.e., the sound r is dropped before consonants): "Park the car in Harvard Yard," which can sound like "pahk the cah in hahvad yahd". However, motorists are not allowed to park in Harvard Yard, except for move-in-day for freshmen living in Harvard Yard, and for services at Memorial Church—and then only for people with mobility problems.
Harvard Yard is a bibliographically-themed mystery by author William Martin (Warner 2004), about the search for a lost work by William Shakespeare hidden at the university.

Notes

1. ^ The Wren Building at the College of William and Mary is occasionally cited as the oldest, although it was unused during much of the 1880s and has been rebuilt several times, most recently in the late 1920s.
2. ^ This practice has been discussed in articles and columns in local and campus newspapers. It has also been mentioned in local police logs. Finally (as a second-tier source), it has been discussed on various web pages. For example:

Boston Herald article discussing the tradition
Harvard Independent article mentioning the tradition
Harvard Crimson column discussing the tradition and analyzing its meaning
Harvard Police log showing a call about such urination
Unofficial campus guide mentioning the practice
Church Newsletter including a personal memoir where the writer was told not to touch the statute
3. ^ [1] Access date August 12, 2007

External links

Map of Harvard Yard

Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street.
..... Click the link for more information.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Seal
Location in Middlesex County in Massachusetts
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Massachusetts
County Middlesex
..... Click the link for more information.

Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League.
..... Click the link for more information.

First year, or freshman, is a term, in an educational setting, often used to describe a student's status during their first year at an educational institution. It can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves (e.g. They are first years).
..... Click the link for more information.

Dormitory typically refers in the United States to sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students. The U.K.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (also known as FAS) is the largest of the seven faculties that comprise Harvard University. The FAS instructs five schools (below), while the other faculties each instruct one, accounting for the total of nine schools that comprise
..... Click the link for more information.

University Hall is a white granite building designed by noted early American architect Charles Bulfinch on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is now a National Historic Landmark.
..... Click the link for more information.

Massachusetts Hall is the oldest surviving building at Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the English colonies in America, and the oldest or second oldest academic building in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.

Massachusetts Avenue, known to locals as Mass Ave, is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several cities and towns northwest of Boston.

The route

..... Click the link for more information.

The President is the chief administrator of Harvard University. Ex officio the chairman of the Harvard Corporation, she is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to her the day-to-day running of the university.
..... Click the link for more information.

John Harvard (November 26, 1607 – September 14, 1638), despite having spent less than eighteen months of his life in England's Massachusetts Bay Colony, is known in the United States as a Massachusetts clergyman after whom Harvard University is named.
..... Click the link for more information.

Daniel Chester French (April 20 1850 – October 7 1931) was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as Widener Library, is the primary building of the library system of Harvard University. Located on the south side of Harvard Yard directly across from Memorial Church, Widener serves as the centerpiece of the
..... Click the link for more information.

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 15 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States and the largest academic library system in the world.
..... Click the link for more information.

Houghton Library is the primary repository for rare books and manuscripts at Harvard University. It is part of the Harvard College Library within the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Houghton is located on the south side of Harvard Yard, next to Widener Library.
..... Click the link for more information.

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Coordinates: _ ]

Built/Founded: 1878
Architect: Henry Hobson Richardson
Architectural style(s): Other, Romanesque

..... Click the link for more information.

Canaday Hall is one of the newest buildings in Harvard Yard. Built in 1974, it is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. When seen from above, the complex of buildings comprising Canaday Hall resemble the shape of a question mark.
..... Click the link for more information.

Matthews Hall is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. It is located in Harvard Yard.

Past residents include Matt Damon, Robert Rubin, Charles Schumer, Barney Frank, William Randolph Hearst, Michael Chertoff, John Dos Passos, Terrence Malick,
..... Click the link for more information.

Straus Hall is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. It is located in Harvard Yard.

Three Harvard brothers built Straus Hall to commemorate their parents, Isidor Straus and Ida Straus, who died on the Titanic.
..... Click the link for more information.

Stoughton Hall Designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1804 is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. It is located in Harvard Yard. The rooms are spacious doubles, housing a mix of interests and nationalities.
..... Click the link for more information.

Holworthy Hall is one of the dormitories housing first-year students at Harvard College. It is located in Harvard Yard. Housing three entryways, it is the closest dorm to the Science Center.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Herod_Archelaus