Harvard in 1776 Walking Tour

As part of the ongoing commemoration of Harvard University’s involvement in the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the History Department has put together a walking tour of sites on or near our campus related to the American Revolution. Below, you can learn more about eight specific locations just a short distance from the History Department in Harvard’s Robinson Hall. These sites are related in a variety of ways to the unfolding of the American Revolution in Cambridge, with ties to future U.S. presidents, military battles for independence, local Cantebridgian patriots, and more.

We hope you’ll take time out of your busy schedules to wander around the yard, visit our museums, and locate these memorable spots, bringing you closer to important moments in American history.

This walking tour was previously organized as a scavenger hunt for Harvard undergraduates, running from March 23rd, 2026 to April 15th, 2026. Congratulations to those undergrads who completed the hunt!

SPOT 1: Benjamin Franklin’s Electrostatic Machines

in the Putnam Gallery, Harvard Collection of Historical and Scientific Instruments

In Feb. 1764, a fire in Harvard Yard destroyed several buildings, thousands of books, and valuable scientific equipment. The Harvard Corporation enlisted Benjamin Franklin’s help to replace the damaged scientific instruments with newer models. After all, Franklin was not only a renowned scientist who regularly corresponded with New England academics; he was also on the ground in London as a colonial agent, which put him in close proximity to noted instrument makers. Franklin obtained instruments like this electrostatic machine in 1766, the same year he was in London to testify before the House of Commons about colonists’ Stamp Act protests. These instruments remind us that the American Revolution was a long and messy process, not just of rupture, but also of exchange—including the exchange of instruments and ideas.

SPOT 2: Dawes Island

Cambridge Common (between Garden Street and Mass. Ave.)

In April 1775, prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere undertook his famous midnight ride to alert Sam Adams, John Hancock, and local militiamen that British regulars were on the march—but he did not ride alone. He was joined by shoemaker William Dawes and physician Samuel Prescott. Revere rode through Charleston along Mystic River to Lexington, and Prescott rode from Lexington to Concord. Dawes rode toward Roxbury and Brookline, then through Cambridge, past Menotomy to Lexington. His route through Cambridge is commemorated here with a marker and horseshoes in the sidewalk.

SPOT 3: Holden Chapel

in Harvard Yard (Harvard St, Cambridge)

In the early 1740s, Harvard consisted of only a handful of buildings, including a brew-house, buttery, and philosophy chamber. Students lacked a place for worship, so alumni Thomas Hutchinson urged Jane Whitehalgh Holden (widow of London banker Samuel Holden) to donate funds for a church. This building, Holden Chapel, was completed in 1744. In 1769, Massachusetts Governor Frances Bernard transferred the provincial government from Boston to the chapel. The move was a political calculation: Bostonians were protesting British military occupation, and the governor wanted to test whether he could control the conditions by which the legislature met. Some legislators were also unwilling to meet in Boston, where they felt unable to freely deliberate while surrounded by military forces. Hutchinson became governor in 1771 and ordered the government to continue meeting in the chapel he had helped build. At the same time, he faced widespread protests during his tenure for the Stamp Act and the Boston Massacre. When these tensions erupted into war in 1775, Washington’s troops took control of the chapel to use it as a military barracks.

SPOT 4: The Old Courthouse Marker

Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue

To punish Bostonians for the Boston Tea Party, the English Parliament replaced elected local government with a royally-appointed council called the Mandamus Council. Massachusetts governor and military commander-in-chief hand-selected thirty-six men for the council, only two of whom had previous council experience. Weeks after he appointed the council, on Sept. 1, 1774, Gen. Gage sent an expedition to seize gunpowder from a powder house in present-day Somerville. Cantabridgians were alarmed and outraged by the loss of their political representation and their power, so four thousand protestors marched here, down Brattle Street, and demanded the immediate resignation of Cambridge’s Mandamus Council appointees. During their protest at this site, they successfully forced the resignation of Thomas Oliver, Samuel Danforth, and Joseph Lee.

SPOT 5: The Washington Elm

in the Cambridge Commons

A large elm tree grew at this site until 1923. It was a long-time Cambridge landmark. Harvard president Jared Sparks claimed that the famous itinerant preacher George Whitfield delivered a sermon under the tree for Cantabridgians in 1746. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, New England militiamen established an encampment around the tree on Boston Common. George Washington travelled from Philadelphia to meet them at the Continental Congress. He is said to have taken command of the Continental Army on the Common, under the elm. Regardless of whether this is true, the story gave the elm an important place in Cambridge's revolutionary memory. During the Civil War, Cantabridgians decorated the elm with flags and liberty as a symbol of the Union. The elm died in 1923, and the City of Cambridge divided its trunk and sent it to the governors of every state. Grafts and young cuttings from the tree were propagated across the United States, which means the elm has descendants scattered across the country—including, story has it, the tree currently growing next to the Washington Elm monument on the Common.

SPOT 6: Hicks House

64 John F. Kennedy St, Cambridge

This was the home of American patriot John Hicks, one of only two Cambridge participants in the 1773 Boston Tea Party. Built by Hicks himself eleven years earlier in 1762, the structure was originally located where Harvard’s Malkin Athletic Center now stands, having been moved in 1928 so the gymnasium could be built. Hicks actually died in combat on April 19th, 1775, just a few miles north of this home, when he and three other armed Cantabrigians attempted a surprise attack on British soldiers retreating in the aftermath of the Battle of Lexington and Concord — making him one of the first Americans to die in the course of the Revolutionary War. That same year, and perhaps partially due to his death, the home was taken over by Generals George Washington and Israel Putnam and used until 1777 as one of their Cambridge offices, with the majority of the space used as housing for Putnam’s junior officers. Hicks may be visited at Cambridge’s Old Burying Ground, where he was buried and remains today.

SPOT 7: George Washington

in Room 2240 at the Harvard Art Museums

This portrait of George Washington was completed in 1784 by Charles Willson Peale, one of nearly sixty pictures this famed American artist created of Washington across their lifetimes. Hanging now in the Eighteenth–Century Atlantic World Room (Level 2, Room 2240) of the Harvard Art Museums, this painting is a rich visual statement regarding the power and prowess of the American military leader and future first president, noticeable especially in his dignified stance, sharp tonal contrast from a somewhat dull background, and setting in a military camp. This piece is also a satirical response to British painter Alan Ramsay’s 1761/1762 portrait of King George III at his royal coronation, where the monarch is poised in a classical scene in lush fineries and furs — far different from the almost-battle scene Peale opted to place his patriotic subject.

SPOT 8: Wadsworth House

in Harvard Yard (1341 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge)

On July 2nd of 1775, this home was commandeered by General George Washington to become his first headquarters during the American Revolutionary War. Previously, and resumed upon Washington’s departure from the home two weeks later, the structure served as the main residence of Harvard presidents from 1726 to 1849; as an incentive and reward for their service, presidents lived here with their families and those who worked to keep and maintain the house, including four enslaved people, Titus and Venus (who lived and worked during President Wadsworth’s term, 1725-1737), and Juba and Bilhah (who lived and worked during President Holyoke’s term, 1737-1769).

In the two weeks that Washington worked from the house, he hosted Abigail Adams, convened meetings about war strategies with fellow American patriots, and even rode out to take command of American troops at the Cambridge Common on July 3rd, 1775.

Still have energy? Try Harvard's new Harvard & the American Revolution Tour!