Divinity Hall, built in 1826, is the oldest building in the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

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 high ...

. It is located at 14 Divinity Avenue,

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 ...

. The Hall was designed by

Solomon Willard Solomon Willard (June 26, 1783 – February 27, 1861) was a carver and builder in Massachusetts who is remembered primarily for designing and overseeing the Bunker Hill Monument, the first monumental obelisk erected in the United States. Backgr ...

and Thomas Sumner, and dedicated on August 29, 1826, with

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Chann ...

giving the dedicatory speech, "The Christian Ministry." It was the first Harvard building constructed outside Harvard Yard. As George Huntston Williams wrote in his 1954 history of the Divinity School, theological students needed to be isolated from undergraduates lest they drink up "more of the spirit of the University than of the spirit of their profession." A decade later, on July 15, 1838,

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

delivered his famous

Divinity School Address The "Divinity School Address" is the common name for the speech Ralph Waldo Emerson gave to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838. Its formal title is "Acquaint Thyself First Hand with Deity." Background Emerson prese ...

,Field, Peter S. ''Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual''. Landham, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002: 11. "Acquaint Thyself at First Hand with Deity," in the Hall. The building is a rectangular two-story brick building, laid in Flemish bond, with only minimal brownstone trim. It has a hip roof that is only broken by a gable at the center of the long side, part of a projecting central section three bays wide. The build has a pair of entrances on either side of this central section, which are framed by Greek Revival Doric porticos. In its early days, Divinity Hall contained the entire Divinity School. It was later used as a dormitory, then classrooms. Notable residents have included

Theodore Parker Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) was an American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. A reformer and abolitionist, his words and popular quotations would later inspire speeches by Abraham Lincol ...

, and philosopher

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

. Its chapel contains a fine organ by George S. Hutchings, recently restored. Today, the building houses classrooms, faculty offices, and several administrative offices, including the Office of Ministry Studies, the Office of Religion and Public Life, and the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Harvard Divinity School Harvard University buildings University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts School buildings completed in 1825

See also

References