Built 1901 (1901) NRHP Reference # 86001270 Area 404.7 m² | MPS Cambridge MRA Opened 1901 Added to NRHP 19 May 1986 | |
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Architectural style Colonial Revival architecture Similar Harvard Yard, Lechmere Canal, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Square, Cambridge Common | ||
Bertram Hall at Radcliffe College is an historic dormitory building on the Radcliffe Quadrangle of Harvard University at 53 Shepard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1895, it was the first dormitory building constructed for Radcliffe College. The building is now one of the dormitories of Harvard's Cabot House. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
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Map of Bertram Hall, 53 Shepard St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Description and history
Bertram Hall is located on the south side of the Radcliffe Quadrangle, between its grassy center and Shepard Street. It is a 3-1/2 story brick building with Georgian Revival styling. It is covered by a dormered hip roof. It is nine bays wide, with a central five-bay section and symmetrical two-bay end sections that project slightly. The building corners have brick quoining, and the eave is adorned with modillions. Most windows are set in rectangular openings with stone sills and splayed stone lintels; those on the ground floors of the end sections are set in blind round-arch recesses. The main entrance is at the center, sheltered by a single-story porch with Tuscan columns and a balustrade on the roof.
The hall was built in 1901 to a design by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. It was the first of the quadrangle's buildings to be built, and the first dormitory building at Radcliffe College, representing a major shift in the college's policy from placement of its boarding students in private homes. It was funded by a donation from the Radcliffe class of 1895.