Places

Longfellow Park preserves the view from the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House across open space to the Charles River. In the center of the designed landscape is a memorial to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first landscaped rural or “garden” cemetery in the United States. Established in 1831 in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the cemetery was not only designed as a resting place for the deceased, but also as an attraction and pleasure ground, with picturesque landscapes, winding paths, a variety of horticulture, and sculptural art.

This lot was the site of the “spreading chestnut tree” and the smithy’s workshop, which were a source of inspiration for Longfellow’s “The Village Blacksmith.”

Built as an apothecary for druggist Thomas Crease in 1718, it became a literary center in the mid-1800s. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others brought their manuscripts here to be published by Ticknor and Fields Company.

Built in 1746 for the wealthy Henry and Penelope Vassall, this house was used as a medical facility during the Revolutionary War and it was here that Dr. Benjamin Church was confined under house arrest after he was accused of passing information to British General Gage.

The site is named after James Read, the original owner who built the house about 1738 and worked as a tanner. Two of his sons served in the New England Army during the American Revolution, marching on the alarm of April 19th, 1775 to Lexington and Concord.

Built in 1760, this house was originally owned by Cambridge's wealthy elite. During the Revolutionary War, the house was used as a lavish prison for Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, a Hessian General, and his wife, Charlotte

A popular outdoor spot with tourists and locals alike, the Cambridge Common has been part of the history of Cambridge for over 250 years. Historical markers include the site of the "Washington Elm," memorials to Prince Hall and Revolutionary Generals Kościuszko and Knox, a Civil War monument, and a memorial to victims of the Irish Famine.

Established in 1759 and designed by Peter Harrison, who was the first formally-trained architect to work in the North American British colonies, Christ Church provided Church of England services to the local Cambridge community prior to the American Revolution.

From its establishment in the mid-1600s until the early 1900s, the Old Burying Ground in Harvard Square took in new burials. It now offers a look into life and death in the Colonial Period of the Greater Boston area.