Memorial Hall (Harvard University)
Building at Harvard University / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Memorial Hall, immediately north of Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, is an imposing[2][3][4] High Victorian Gothic building honoring Harvard men's sacrifices in defense of the Union during the American Civil War—"a symbol of Boston's commitment to the Unionist cause and the abolitionist movement in America."[5]
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Memorial Hall, Harvard University | |
View from southwest showing Annenberg Hall (foreground) and Memorial Transept (right). Sanders Theatre is out of view beyond Memorial Transept. | |
Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°22′33.2″N 71°6′53.7″W |
Built | 1870–1877 |
Architect | William Robert Ware, Henry Van Brunt |
Architectural style | Neo-Gothic |
NRHP reference No. | 70000685[1] |
Built on a former playing field known as the Delta, it was described by Henry James as consisting 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.[6]
James's "three divisions" are known today as (respectively) Sanders Theatre; Annenberg Hall (formerly Alumni Hall or the Great Hall); and Memorial Transept. Beneath Annenberg Hall, Loker Commons offers a number of student facilities.