BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, State House, Boston - - - - - - In Area no. Mid-Camb Form no. MC IIC5 - - 1. Town Cambridge Address_Oxford/Divinity Ave. Name University Museum Present use mus e um 2. Photo (3x3" or 3x5") taple to lett side of forr hoto number 1097-1( - 7: 10L09, 10 AK DIVINITY HALL (For RepólSre AS SÓC. iney UNIVERSITY MSUM MHC Photo no. (over) Present owner Harvard University 3. Description: Date 1859-89, 1891, 1901 1913 Source deed and Harvard records Style Primarily Italian Renaissance Architect (see back) Exterior wall fabric brick, brownstone Outbuildings (describe) - Other features massive brick museum bu: during twelve stages over period of sixty years. Altered Yes- various additions, changes Moved No Date - from 1871-1913 Date_- 5.
Lot size: One acre or less Approximate frontage Over one acre 450 feet Approximate distance of building from street 130 feet 6. Recorded by Robert Rettig/Robert Nylander OrganizationCambridge Historical Comm. Date 1967-68 UTM- BOSTON NORTH 19/325800/4693750 AsSESSOR#144-18 5M-2-75-R061465 (20M-2976) - Architects: Museum of Comparative Zoology: Greenough & Snell (1859-88) Geological/Mineralogy Museums: unknown (1888-91, 1901) Botanical Museum: Shaw & Hunnewell, Walter Burke (1901) Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology: Robert H. Slack, Stone, Carpenter & Co. (1876, 1888,1915) Walter Burke 7. Original owner (If known) Independent institution organized by Professor Louis Agassiz Original use_ -museum Subsequent uses (if any) and dates same 8.
Themes (check as many as applicable) Aboriginal Agricultural Architectural The Arts Commerce Communication Community development Conservation Education Exploration/ settlement Industry Military Political Recreation Religion Science/ invention Social/ humanitarian Transportation XX 9. Historical significance (include explanation of themes checked above) The University Museum was first built and administered as an independent institution and was not turned over to Harvard until 1876. The Museum was conceived by Professor Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who brought together diverse collections: zoology, mineralogy, botany and anthropology- These were housed in a huge six-level building.
Iwelve later sections were added by seven architectural firms, over a period of sixty years- The degree ofarchitectural unity is remarkable, attributable to the simple design and consistent use of the same materials. Louis Agassiz was a Swiss-born scientist of great prominence. He was renowned for his brilliant theory of the Ice Age. Agassiz held the Chair of Natural History at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School starting in 1848. The original building (1859) was designed by Henry Greenough and George Snell. Greenough was a gentleman architect without formal training. His other local commissions included the Atheneum in Central Square (later used as the first City Hall), and houses for prominent Cambridge citizens, including Agassiz. Snell was the architect of Boston's Music Hall.
Ihe first unit of the museum is a spare, rectangular mass with a projecting entrance pavilion and windows oI varying heights with brownstone lintels and sills lhe original design underwent some modifications. One change in the 1870s was to add a mansard roof to the original wing. The Peabody Museum wing and later additions were constructed starting in 1876. The Museum meets criterion B for its associitions with Louis Agassiz and criterion C for the unity and quality of its Renaissa ce design. 10. Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's records, early maps, etc.) 1ON 08617 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commumity: Form No: Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge MRA Property Name : Cambriage Multiple Resource Area Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
Standard Bibliography - Cambridge Multiple Resource Nomination Bunting, Bainbridge, and Floyd, Margaret H., ed., Harvard, An Architectural History. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1985 Cambridge Historical Commission, Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Report One: East Cambridge (1965) Two: Mid Cambridge (1967) Report Three: Cambridgeport : (1971) Report Four: Old Cambridge (1973) Report Five: Northwest Cambridge (1977) Cambridge Historical Society, Proceedings. Cambridge, 1906-present Daughters of the American Revolution, Hannah Winthrop Chapter, An Historical Guide to Cambridge: Cambridge, 1907 Sicanfridedi hambryegsge Bighten Hundred and Nanety Paige, L.R., History of Cambridge.
Boston: H.O Hougton and Company, 1877 Suppiement Dappleent and 1zald cambrlage He cary iageamostorica1 Society, 1930 Rett1g, R.B., Guide to Cambridge Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1909 Stillman, W.J., ed., Poetic Localities of Cambridge. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1876 woods, R.A., and Kennedy, A.J.; Warner, S.B., ed., The Zone OI Emergence.
Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1962 Zaitzevsky, C., With the advice of the Review Committee members, The Harvard University Study of Historic and Architectural Properties in the Environs of Cambridge, (April 1983 - December 1984) Staple to Inventory form at bottom SANZ 19* NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION SHEET enwversity miseum Property:(CAmbredge Muetiele Rejouzu ARla State, County:_ MA-nudalesux Federal Agency: United States Department of the Interior National Park Service DOE/OWNER OBJECTION Working No.- 11-14-80-2862 Fed. Reg. Date:_ Date Due: 4|17/83 Action: resubmission homination by person or local government owner objection appeal ACCEPT- RETURN 6-10-82 - REJECT - photos L maps - Substantive Review: - sample - request - appeal - NR decision Reviewer's comments: Return per agreement ly MA.
SHPO to resubmit to State Revreu Berud Please providea bief explanation of the senlgone dto, emucaton e ae moricdh Recom. / Criteria. ria feturn Reviewer jatuck Anduws Discipline Historian Date 6/10/82 - see, continuation sheet .Nomination returned for: 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Oumorship Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property Status Accossibte razont Use 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys has this property been determined oligibie? -technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 7. Description andition _ excelient good .deteriorated ruins .unexposed Chock one -unaitered _ altered Check one - original site _ moved date eont end eriginel (lf known) pirysicel apposrance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection 8.
Significance Perted Araus of Stemificance Chack and huattty baiee Specific detee Statemont el Significance (in one parapraph) Buliter Architeet summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of excepticn other S. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data hcreage of nominetec property Custirengie name UbTT Reterencer Vurbei boudary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaiuerad signiticence of this property within the stete is: nationei - state Beate Historic Pregervatior: Otficer signeture date title 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Patuike Anduus signed /N.H.
Bracham - Date 6.10.82 Phone: 202 272-3504 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet IASSACEUSETIS EISTORICAL COMMISSION 30 BOYLSTON SIREDT, BOSTON, MA 02116 bridae II C 5 USGS Map #26 Cambridge, Mass. Iowa Cambridge MRA Address 11-25 Divinity Avenue Historic Name University Museum PHOTO: (3x3" o= 3x5" Placs & waite itaple to Leit side oi Iom Photo sumber 37-21A SKCTCH MAP Show property's location in relation to esrest cross streets aad/ot geogzaphical features. Iadicate aLL buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersectioa. Indicate north. Use: Present Original DESCRIPTION: museum museum Date. 1859 Source deed and Harvard Records Style Italian Renaissance Architect Greenough and Snell Esterior wall fabric brick, brownstone Outbuildiags None (See Attached Map) Major alteratioas (with dates) 1871-1911 see back Recorded by R. Rettig/R. Nylander/ T.
Alduino Organization Cambridge Histerical Comm. Date 1967/1968/1985 UTM 19/325800/4693750 USGS Quad: Boston North Moved no Date NA Approx. acieage_ .3590 acres Setting_University Museum is balanced to the east by the Biological Laboratory, 1930, and by the Farlow and University Herbaria, 1886, to the north. (Staple additional sheets bere) RCHITECTURAL SIONIFICANE Describe important architectural features an valuate in terms of other buildings within the commmity. (See attached sheet) (See attached sheet) BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) (See attached Standard Bibliography) Specific References: Casler, Patricia Joanne, Personalities, Politics and Patrons of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1866-1896, Tundergraduate thesis), Department of History, Harvard University, March, 1976.
Dictionary ofAmerican Biography The Development of Harvard University, edited by Samuel Éliot Morison, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., 1930. 10M - 7/8. INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Mid-Cambridge MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Property Name: Form No. M.C. II C 5 University Museum Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Architectural Significance (cont'a) The University Museum is a huge, six-level U-shaped building of 364 by 269 foot dimensions that was erected between 1859 and 1913 to house such diverse studies as zoology, mineralogy, botany, and anthropology. The building did not grow systematically from a single center, but was con- structed in twelve sections under the direction of seven architectural firms over a period of almost sixty years.
"The first section (1859), devoted to comparative zoology, was designed by Henry Greenough and George Snell. Their collaboration seems to have been a one-time affair. Greenough, brother of the sculptor and archi- tectural critic, Horatio Greenough, was a sort of 18th-century gentle- man-architect without professional training. He designed the old Athenaeum in Central Square (later used. as the first city hall) and houses for - a number of prominent Cambridge residents, including that of Louis Agassiz on Quincy Street....
..- (George Snell wasna Boston architect whose most important work was the Bostan Music Hall, 1852, off Tremont Street.) The first unit of themuseum has a spare, clean- cut quality, whose rectangular mass depends on a projecting entrance pavillion (entirely rebuilt on a much larger scale in 1895 and 1906) and on variations in window heights emphasized by the brownstone lin-.. tels capping each window. The four-story building was composed of three horizontal divisions: a high basementrwith windows and two principal zones, each divided into a main story and a mezzanine. Later an attic story was added to make six levels lighted by windows. The distinction between principal and mezzanine levels reflects interior organization by which exhibition galleries are divided into a main floor augmented by a balcony surrounding the high central space of each hall.
(Several such interior can still be seen in the comparative zoology section.) The absence of picturesque elements in this block was appropriate for a building that was to be part of a much larger complex. "The original design underwent some modifications. One change in the early 70's added a mansard roof to the original wing in order to pro- vide an additional office story. When the 1876 (Peabody Museum) wing was built, a continuous line of arched windows was substituted for the mansard dormers so as to create a full attic story; in 1884 this attic mezzanine levels, thus making them regular floors (the second and fourth) though the original square mezzanine windows still remain in the 1859 wing.
At the same time, flush brownstone lintels and later segmental brick arches were substituted for the earlier academic Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston comcambridge, Mass. Mid-Cambridge Cambridge MRA Property Name: Form No. M.C. II C 5 University Museum Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Architectural Significance (cont'a) brownstone lintels capped by a crown molding.A small amount of Panel Brick decoration was incorporated in the southeast pavillion - (1876) as well as those that frame the main (west) facade, and finally a large gabled pavillion filled with an arch enclosing a bank of windows was added in 1889 to the west facade to provide a principal entrance, even though each major section of the building continues to have its own entrance.
Despite these accents there is a business-like directness and the utilitarian character of the structure is indicated by the functional exposure of iron stairs and cast-iron columns and by the (Report Four, Historical Significance (cont'd) The University Museum was built in 1859 and administered as an inde- pendent institution and was not turned over to Harvard until 1876. The Museum was conceived by Professor Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who brought together diverse collections in zoology, mineralogy, botany and anthropology. Louis Agassiz was a Swiss-born scientist of great prominence. He was re- nowned for his brilliant theory of the Ice Age. Agassiz held the Chair of Natural History at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School starting in 1848. The University Museum represented a new departure in museum history.
Earlier American museums were collections of scientific curiosities while the exhibitions of private collectors favored displays to attract the public dollar. "In 1859, a new approach appeared as - . . Harvard's Louis Agassiz pioneered the use of the museum as an educational tool with his brain- child, the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). . . - While scientific and laboratory, the MCZ was a primary educational tool in the training of aspiring natural- ists. When the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology was founded at Harvard only seven years later in 1866, it was only logical that the methods practiced by the MCZ influenced its organiza- tion." (Casler.) At Agassiz' death in 1873 the management of the museum went to his son, Alexander Agassiz, who directed much of the museum's growth.
Continued Staple to Inventory form at Bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Community: Cambridge. Mass. Mid-Cambridge Cambridge MRA Property Name: Form No. M.C. IIC 5 University Museum Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. Historical Significance (cont'a) The Museum of Comparative Zoology was the first name for the Uni- versity Museum. Many prominent American naturalists of the time worked under Louis Agassiz. Among them was Theodore Lyman, who, by serving without pay, set a precedent for volunteer assistants which became im- portant to the museum's survival. Lyman's father was Mayor of Boston, and Lyman himself served a term in Congress in 1882.
Another Agassiz pupil was Samuel Garman, who became supervisor of the collections of fishes and marine invertebrates and made a substantial scholarly contri- bution to that field. Alexander Agassiz brought to the museum vast quantities of study material from his own oceanographic expeditions. Agassiz served as director until 1898. In 1927, under the direction of Dr. Thomas Barbour, renovations were undertaken to rearrange the museum's library and study collections, giving up some exhibit space. In 1890, the section of the University Museum housing mineralogy was built. The Mineralogical Cabinet, begun in 1784 by Professor Benjamin Waterhouse of the Medical School, was the oldest collection of objects of natural history at the University. Harvard Hall to the new space at the University Museum. Museum developed almost simultaneously with the mineralogical collections.
Among the prominent geologists who were teachers and curators were Joseph Dwight Whitney and Henry Crosby Stetson. Included in the collections are two unique models, one of the volcano Kilauea and one of the Boston Basin. The Botanical Museum was built in 1890, allowing lecture and lab activities to relocate out of crowded quarters at Harvard and Massachusetts George Lincoln Goodale conceived of the idea to display plant life, like the zoological display of mounted animals, but dried plants were not effective. He chose glass as the medium for his plant models, having seen a few zoological models in glass representing jellyfish and other invertebrates. The glass flowers have become one of the most famous parts of the museum's collections. The flowers are the work of the German glassworkers Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph Blaschka.
Their work for the Uni- versity was done over more than fifty years and was funded by gifts from Mrs. Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter, Mary Lee Ware of Boston. Ware Collection of Glass Flowers was officially presented in 1893 as a memorial to Dr. Charles Eliot Ware. There are several thousands of models representing plants and flowers in their natural size and some enlarged parts to show details. Continued C Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Community: Cambrodge. Mass. Mid-Cambridge Cambridge MRA Property Name: Form No. M.C. II C 5 University Museum Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
Historical Significance (cont'd) The Peabody Museum was the nation's only anthropology museum at the time of its founding in 1866, and from early on it initiated and funded explorations and excavations. The money to start the museum was given by George Peabody, and the first curator was Professor Jeffries wyman. The collections grew rapidly with gifts from such distinguished sources as the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution. Valuable collections from Europe were also acquired. When Wyman died in 1874, Asa Gray was appointed curator pro tem. He selected Frederick Ward Putnam to be curator in 1875. Putnam had been a student of Louis Agassiz and went on to be a curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. When the museum building was completed in 1877, the collections were transferred from Boylston Hall.
Generous gifts from Charles Pickering Bowditch, and later his wife, gave the museum resources with which to grow. Today the University Museum is a world renowned center for teaching and research in the natural and social sciences. The University Museum meets Criterion A for its association with events that contribute to an understanding of intellectual and scientific history, and Criterion B, for its association with Louis Agassiz and other persons significant in American intellectual history. Staple to Inventory form at Bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Conmmity: I Form No: Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge MRA Property Name: Cambridge Multiple Resource Area Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
Standard Bibliography - Cambridge Multiple Resource Nomination Bunting, Bainbridge, and Floyd, Margaret H., ed., Harvara, An Architectural History. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1985 Cambridge Historical Commission, Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Report One: East Cambridge (1965) Report Iwo: Mid Cambridge (1967) Report Three: Cambridgeport (1971) Report Four: Old Cambridge (19/3) Report Five: Northwest Cambridge (1977) Cambridge Historical Society, Proceedings. Cambridge, 1906-present Daughters of the American Revolution, Hannah Winthrop Chapter, An Historical Guide to Cambridge: Cambridge, 1907 Gilman, A., ed., Cambridge of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety Six. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1896 Paige, L.R., History of Cambridge.
Boston: H.O Hougton and Company, 1877 Paige, I.R.; Gozzaldi, M.I., ed., History of Cambridge Supplement and Index. Cambridge: The Cambridge Historical Society, 1930 Rettig, R.B., Guide to Cambridge Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1969 Stillman, W.J., ed., Poetic Localities of Cambridge. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1876 Woods, R.A., and Kennedy, A.J.; Warner, S.B., ed., Ihe Zone of Emergence.
Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1962 Zaitzevsky, C., With the advice of the Review Committee members, The Harvard University : Study of Historic and Architectural Properties in the Environs of Cambridge, (April 1983 - December 1984) Staple to Inventory form at botion NPS Form 10.900-a (7-81) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory- -Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number For NPS use only received date entered Page/0 117 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Cambridge Multiple Resource Area Nomination/Type of Review 91. cummings, e. e., House Substanilve Hevler, Keeper. Sulsteatira Xeriow Attest : 92. givinity HallDOEXOWNER OBJECTION Keeper abpecteon wrthdran 8b81 Attest 93. North Avenue Congregational Church Keeper Attest *94. Prospect Congregational Church Keeper Substantiva Review "95.
University Museum aunie aljecteon YOWI wthdean -TION Attest kalKeeper 96. Old Cambridge Baptist Church Keeper Attest -9T. XWare Hall Keeper Attest +98. Cambridge Public Library Keeper Attest ,99.) Church of the New Jerusalem substantive Revtowkeeper n100. Arbstantire Kevien Busch-Reischinger House DOEZOWNER OBJECTION Attest Keeper Attest Date/Signatyre PonuniDoy 16-309, Patuck Andums 9/12/84 Barhf. Savase 1112l. Bae fbry l630r, Lueian A Bravam 413-82 Patuicke Andu 2/2/06 Betint Sogge Wieliir /t. Brauhom 4.13.82 pmprpel63? Wielam H. Bracham 4.13.82 Porucr da Drug 6:3080 6 10 82 taward 860002081 WASO Form - 177 ("'R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Substaative Review University Museum (Cambridge MRA) Middlesex County MASSACHUSETTS JUL 3 0 1986 resubmission was Doé sornew ary.
nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Working No._ Fed. Reg. Date: 2/2/38 Date Due: 8/28/86 - 9/13/86 Action: _LACCEPT__ -RETURN _REJECT- Federal Agency: Substantive Review: J sample LJrequest -appeal - NR decision Reviewer's comments: Amportant inaxitetion in the developnenk of maseum tistory toudd for the pioneerinng Recom./Criteria Accept A,B acherement Agassiz, its Reviewergavage Discipline Archutectural Aistory founder who contrned the durrse collections of zoology, meneralogy, botanu see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: - *technical corrections cited below O Aporesentted a new andanttropdlostepartue- - She muse substantive reasons discussed below Hhat o1 the sauseumas au educational 7ool. Petum comment 1. Name have leen suffictently addrened. 2. Location 3.
Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition Status Accessible Present Use 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes U 7. Description Fust paze of descreptieni is suoo Condition - excellent good fair Check one deteriorated ruins unexposed - unaltered Jaltered Check one LJ original site moved date r. necid- oK. Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection 8.
Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) J summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource J context relationship of integrity to significance J justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature date title 13. Other Maps Photographs -Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to - Signed. - Date.
Phone: - GPO 918-450 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet University Museum 11-25 Divinity Avenue Cambridse MRA, Ma 37-21A A'ANHENEE een, HATVARD UNNERSTY frra RUSCH RE 144 OXFORD MALLINCA RODT CHEMIAL LAQ HOKARMNEAAIY FRISBIE PL DIVINITY AVE -N ST. «10.y LAUVERSIL TUSRHHL WOARO UAVIVERNIY 144 Cambridgd, Mass Cambridge MRA UNTVERSTTY MUSEUM Base: City of Cambridge Assessor's Plans January 1983 1. 1859, HENRY GREENOUGH AND GEORGE SNELL 2. 1871, HENRY GREENOUGH AND GEORGE SNELL 3. 1876, ROBERT H. SLACK 4. 1876, ROBERT H. SLACK 5. 1880, GEORGE R. SHAW 6.1888, STONE, CARPENTER & CO. 7. 1888-89, ARCHITECT UNKNOWN 8. 1889, ARCHITECT UNKNOWN 9. 1900, SHAW & HUNNEWELL 10. 1906, ARCHITECT UNKNOWN 11. 1913, WALTER S. BURKE 2 4 5 3 6 110 11 7 8 : 9 363. PLAN OF UNIVERSITY MUSEUM SHOWING CONSTRUCTION DATES Cambridge, Mass.
Cambridge MRA Source: Sanveyage Arehitt turat lidtory riage, page 170. Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000275