Old Cambridge Historic District

Old Cambridge is a 52-acre residential and institutional district in Cambridge, Massachusetts, centered on Brattle and Mason Streets and Elmwood Avenue. The route follows the Watertown Path, an ancient way that predates the founding of Newtowne in 1630. In the mid-eighteenth century, prominent Loyalists built mansions along it, giving the street the nickname "Tory Row." During the Siege of Boston in 1775-1776 the houses served as hospitals and barracks, and General Washington was quartered at the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House. Later residents included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell and Elbridge Gerry. The Episcopal Theological School and Radcliffe College added major institutional buildings in the late nineteenth century. Houses by architects such as H. H. Richardson, Henry Van Brunt and McKim, Mead & White represent styles from Georgian to modern. The district was recognized for its historical associations, its architecture and the visual continuity of its landscaped streetscape, which includes Longfellow Park.