The Harvard Branch Railroad was a short-lived branch from the

Fitchburg Railroad The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The main li ...

Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the busin ...

and

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 ...

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, ...

. Part of the former right-of-way is now used by Museum Street. The company was incorporated April 24, 1849, and soon built a line long from just west of Somerville station on the

(at Park Street) southwest to Harvard. On April 19, 1854 it was authorized to abandon the line, and did so in 1855. The

Cambridge Railroad The Cambridge Railroad (also known as the Cambridge Horse Railroad) was the first street railway in the Boston, Massachusetts area, linking Harvard Square in Cambridge to Cambridge Street and Grove Street in Boston's West End, via Massachusett ...

started running to Harvard from Boston in 1856 as a

street railway A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

, via a different route.

References

Railroad History Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvard Branch Railroad Defunct Massachusetts railroads Predecessors of the Boston and Maine Railroad