Boylston Hall is a

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

classroom and academic office building lecture hall near the southwest corner of

Harvard Yard Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, sever ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Ward Nicholas Boylston Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828; born Ward Hallowell), a descendant of the physician Zabdiel Boylston, was an American merchant, a philanthropist, and benefactor of Harvard University. He was a brother of Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew, ...

had left a bequest to Harvard for the building in 1828. It was built in 1858 to designs in

Rundbogenstil (round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular ...

Paul Schulze Paul Schulze (born June 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in ''The Sopranos'', ''Nurse Jackie'', '' 24'' (2002–2004), and ''The Punisher'' (2017), and his films roles in ''Panic Room'' (2002), and ''Rambo'' (2008). Ca ...

of Schulze and Schoen. It was clad in stone, as specified by the donor, specifically Rockport granite, and had a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. In 1871,

Peabody and Stearns Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns J ...

replaced the roof with a mansarded third floor.Harvard Property Information Resource Center, Boylston Hal

/ref> It has been speculated that it is on the homesite of the Rev.

Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...

, first minister to the first church in Cambridge, but this is not well established. It originally served as a chemistry building, with a laboratory and classrooms, and later housed the anatomical museum of Jeffries Wyman, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, who in 1866 became the first curator of the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

, as well as a mineralogical collection. In the 20th century, it became the first home of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. Boylston Hall was gut renovated in 1959 by the architectural firm of

Benjamin Thompson and Associates Benjamin C. Thompson (July 3, 1918 – August 17, 2002) was an American architect. He was one of eight architects who founded The Architects' Collaborative (TAC) in 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the most notable firms in post-w ...

, and is considered an early example of the reuse of sound old buildings (" adaptive reconstruction"), "juxtaposing glass and steel with historic details". It functioned as the university language center. It houses the offices of the Harvard Classics Department. Its Fong Lecture Hall seats 144.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boylston Hall Harvard University buildings Harvard Square School buildings completed in 1858