- Memorial Hall (Harvard University)
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Memorial Hall, Harvard University
Memorial Hall
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts Coordinates: 42°22′33″N 71°6′57″W / 42.37583°N 71.11583°WCoordinates: 42°22′33″N 71°6′57″W / 42.37583°N 71.11583°W Built: 1870-1877 Architect: William Robert Ware; Henry Van Brunt Architectural style: Gothic Governing body: Harvard University NRHP Reference#: 70000685[1] Significant dates Added to NRHP: December 30, 1970 Designated NHL: December 30, 1970 Memorial Hall is an imposing brick building in High Victorian Gothic style, located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a National Historic Landmark which memorializes the sacrifices made by Harvard students for the Union, and in the architecture community is considered "a symbol of Boston's Commitment to the Unionist cause and the abolitionist movement in America."[2]
Contents
History
Memorial Hall was erected in honor of Harvard graduates who fought for the Union in the American Civil War. From 1865 to 1868, a fund-raising committee gathered $370,000, then equal to one-twelfth of Harvard's total endowment, which was augmented by an additional $40,000 bequest from Charles Sanders, class of 1802 and college steward 1827-1831, for "a hall or theatre to be used on Commencement days, Class days, Exhibition days, days of the meetings of the society of Alumni, or any other public occasion connected with the College, whether literary or festive." [3]
An architectural competition began in December 1865, with the winning designs submitted by William Robert Ware, class of 1852, and Henry Van Brunt, class of 1854. (These initial designs were altered as plans proceeded.) In 1870 the building was named Memorial Hall and its cornerstone laid; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., composed a hymn for the occasion. The hall was dedicated for use in 1874, with Sanders Theatre substantially complete in 1875, and the tower completed in 1877. The tower was subsequently destroyed in a 1956 fire but rebuilt in 1999.
In The Bostonians, Henry James described it thus: "The Memorial Hall of Harvard consists of three main divisions: one of them a theater, for academic ceremonies; another a vast refectory, covered with a timbered roof, hung about with portraits and lighted by stained windows, like the halls of the colleges of Oxford; and the third, the most interesting, a chamber high, dim and severe, consecrated to the sons of the university who fell in the long Civil War." Principal interior features of Memorial Hall are as follows:
- Sanders Theatre is a lecture and concert hall of 1,166 seats, wood-paneled with statues of James Otis (by Thomas Crawford) and Josiah Quincy (by William Wetmore Story), and inspired by Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, England. It contains John La Farge's stained glass window Athena Tying a Mourning Fillet.
- The hall's great room (9,000 square feet), now known as Annenberg Hall, is shaped by massive wooden trusses, walnut paneling, and a blue, stenciled ceiling. It was converted to a student commons soon after construction, and served as the college's main dining hall until 1926. From 1926 until 1994, it was only lightly used but after extensive renovation reopened in 1996 as the dining hall for all freshmen.
- The Memorial Transept [2,600 square feet (240 m2)] consists of a 60-foot-high (18 m) gothic vault above a marble floor, black walnut paneling and stenciled walls, two stained glass windows, and 28 white marble tablets commemorating 136 Civil War casualties.
- Twenty-two stained glass windows throughout the building, installed between 1879 and 1902, include works by John La Farge (4 windows), Louis Comfort Tiffany Studios (3 windows), Donald MacDonald (2 windows), and Sarah Wyman Whitman (2 windows).
Restoration
In the first phase of restoration, from 1987-92, Annenberg Hall's stained glass was restored. Cummings Studios, led by conservation consultant Julie L. Sloan [4] restored stained glass windows by Sarah Wyman Whitman, and several Tiffany glass windows, all portraying secular themes.[5]
Until 1926, Annenberg Hall was a central dining hall, but until 1994, the hall was cleared of its tables and served as a venue for dances, banquets, registrations, blood drives, exams and rehearsals. With funding from the Annenberg Foundation, Historical Architect Robert G. Neiley restored it to its original use as a dining facility; the multi-million dollar project featured new flooring, custom designed furniture and lighting fixtures inspired by the original designs, and restored art work.[6]
The general restoration of Memorial Hall was completed in 1996, led by Neiley and his firm [7], as well as Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc., and Bruner/Cott and Associates, Inc.[8]
Finally, in 1999, the slate spire tower of Memorial Hall, truncated by fire on September 6, 1956, was restored by Neiley, and the building was complete.[9]
Gallery
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Wide view of entire building
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Exterior details
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Exterior from south side of building
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The hallway leading to Sanders Theatre
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Inside Sanders Theatre
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ Douglass Shand-Tucci, Richard Cheek: Harvard University: an architectural tour; Princeton Architectural Press, (2001) http://books.google.com/books?id=3g6vmGl0UgwC&pg=PA158&dq=robert+g+neiley+memorial+hall&hl=en&ei=hC14Tv3KIKPb0QH39bj0DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=robert%20g%20neiley%20memorial%20hall&f=false
- ^ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/concept.html
- ^ Office for the Arts at Harvard: Annenberg Hall; Aug. 15, 2011 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/annenberg.html
- ^ Christopher Reed, War and Peace: A stained-glass window in Harvard’s Memorial Hall; Harvard Magazine, January-February 2010 http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/01/war-and-peace
- ^ Office for the Arts at Harvard: Annenberg Hall; Aug. 15, 2011 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/annenberg.html
- ^ http://www.architects.org/committees/news/december-2011-meeting-notes
- ^ http://www.vsba.com/pdfs/HarvardMemorialHall01.pdf
- ^ "Restored"; John Harvard's Journal, 1999 http://harvardmagazine.com/1999/03/jhj.restored.html
External Links
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- Buildings and structures completed in 1877
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- National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
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