Built 1889 NRHP Reference # 82001925 Opened 1889 Added to NRHP 13 April 1982 | MPS Cambridge MRA Designated CP July 28, 1988 Area 4,047 m² | |
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Architecture firm Longfellow, Alden & Harlow Architect Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. Architectural styles Colonial Revival architecture, American Colonial Similar William Brattle House, Dexter Pratt House, Harvard Square, Lechmere Canal, Museum of Comparative Zoology | ||
Brattle Hall is a historic building at 40 Brattle Street in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Colonial Revival building was constructed in 1889 for the Cambridge Social Union to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow. The Union was established as a social club in 1871, and moved into the adjacent William Brattle House in 1889. The hall was built to house the organization's library, and to provide a space for larger meetings and social functions. Original Dutch Colonial in character, the building acquired more of a Colonial Revival styling with the addition in 1907 of the brick ends, as designed by architect Charles Cogswell.
The building continues to serve as a social center today. It houses the Brattle Theatre, a repertory movie house operated by a local non-profit, a restaurant in its basement, and a coffee shop on its first level.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and included in an expansion of the Harvard Square Historic District in 1988.