Best of Harvard Square

The full route

1. 1
   Harvard UniversityStart · University

   The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, John Harvard..

2. 2
   Harvard Yard1 min walk walk · Building / Landmark

   The oldest part of the oldest American university — 22 acres of elms, freshman dorms, Widener Library and the John Harvard statue..

3. 3
   Widener Library1 min walk walk · Building / Landmark

   Harvard’s 1915 flagship library, given by Eleanor Widener for her son Harry — book collector, Titanic victim.

4. 4
   Sever Hall2 min walk walk · Building / Landmark

   H.

5. 5
   Memorial Hall3 min walk walk · Building / Landmark

   Harvard’s polychrome Gothic colossus (1878), built to honor its Civil War dead — Sanders Theatre inside has hosted everyone from Churchill to bell hooks, and freshmen eat beneath its trusses in Annenberg Hall..

6. 6
   Cambridge Common7 min walk walk · Park / Public space

   Common ground since 1631 and the mustering place of the Continental Army, where by long tradition Washington took command in 1775; now the civic green between Harvard Square and Porter..