Harvard Lampoon Building
- Architect
- Edmund M. Wheelwright
- City
- Boston, MA
The Harvard Lampoon Building at 44 Bow Street in Cambridge, sometimes called the Lampoon Castle, opened on February 19, 1909, designed and built by architect Edmund M. Wheelwright as the home of the Harvard Lampoon, the humor magazine he had helped found as a student. Its design draws on an old church in Jamestown, Virginia, and the Flemish Renaissance details of nearby Auburn Street buildings, earning it the nickname 'Satirical Castle.'
the building
A shopping trip to Europe. While the building was under construction, Wheelwright traveled to Europe to furnish it properly, buying leaded windows in Belgium, an Elizabethan mantelpiece in England, and seventeenth-century Delft tiles.
the style
The Lampoon Building doesn't follow one single historical style; Wheelwright blended a form inspired by an old church in Jamestown, Virginia, with Flemish Renaissance detailing borrowed from nearby Auburn Street buildings, resulting in a whimsical hybrid nicknamed the 'Satirical Castle.'
the architect
Edmund M. Wheelwright designed and personally oversaw construction of the Lampoon Building. A Harvard graduate and one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon, he built a home for the very organization he had helped start as a student.
significance
The Harvard Lampoon Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Smith Campus Center
- Harvard Union
- Old Cambridge Baptist Church
- Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
- University Hall
- Massachusetts Hall