{"nrhp_refnum":"70000732","name":"Sever Hall, Harvard University","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Harvard Yard","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.374361985000036,"lon":-71.1154955026328,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-12-30","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1970-12-30","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Sever Hall is a three-and-one-half-story red brick classroom building in Harvard Yard, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, built 1878-1880 and designed by Henry Hobson Richardson.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a masterpiece of mature Richardsonian Romanesque design. Richardson set aside the rock-faced granite and brownstone of his earlier work and used common red brick and plain, symmetrical masses to blend with the nearby 18th-century Georgian and Federal buildings in the Yard. The building is little altered and still serves as a classroom building.","narrative":"Sever Hall is a classroom building on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, commissioned by Harvard in October 1878 and completed in 1880 to designs by Henry Hobson Richardson. It is a symmetrical, 176-foot-long brick structure with a hipped roof, red-orange tile, Longmeadow stone foundations and trim, and four low cylindrical towers marking three wide bays on the front and rear. Cut and carved brick provides much of the ornament, including floral panels and a large pediment above a deeply recessed arched entrance. The building matters because Richardson adopted the red brick and plain oblong massing of the Georgian and Federal buildings around it, rather than the rock-faced granite and brownstone of his earlier work. Architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock called it one of Richardson's greatest works. Little altered, it still functions as a classroom building and is open to visitors.","period_of_significance":"1878-80","architect_builder":"Henry Hobson Richardson (Henry H. Richardson of Boston)","architectural_style":"Richardsonian Romanesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"In excellent condition, little altered, still used for classroom purposes and open to visitors.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.811676-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/31/7937/63793731/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/70000732_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000732/772ec3010e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000732/772ec3010e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sever_Hall_(Harvard_University)_-_west_facade.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sever_Hall_(Harvard_University)_-_west_facade.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793731","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sever_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7457805"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/sever-hall-harvard-university-70000732/"}