Massachusetts Hall
- City
- Boston, MA
Massachusetts Hall is the oldest surviving building at Harvard College and the second-oldest academic building in the United States, after the Wren Building at William & Mary. Built between 1718 and 1720, it was designed not by a professional architect but by two men who each went on to serve as Harvard president, John Leverett and his successor Benjamin Wadsworth. It opened as a dormitory with 32 chambers and 64 small private study rooms built to house 64 students, and it now holds National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places status.
the building
A dormitory turned barracks. During the Siege of Boston in the Revolutionary War, 640 American soldiers were quartered inside the hall, and much of the original interior woodwork and hardware — including its brass doorknobs — disappeared during the occupation.
An early observatory. In 1722, benefactor Thomas Hollis donated a quadrant and a 24-foot telescope, and for a time the building doubled as an informal astronomical observatory.
the architect
The building's design is credited to two men who were not professional architects but Harvard presidents: John Leverett, in office when construction began, and his successor Benjamin Wadsworth.
significance
Massachusetts Hall holds National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places status as a rare survival of early Colonial-era collegiate architecture, and it remains in use today as the seat of Harvard's central administration.