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Gates of Harvard Yard

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Harvard Yard – the oldest part of the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts – is bounded by a perimeter fence punctuated by a series of gates, all built since 1880.[1]

Northwest

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Johnston Gate

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Johnston Gate. Translated from Latin, the inscription on the tablet at left reads: "Samuel Johnston of Chicago  · Graduate in the year 1855  · Who was born in Cincinnati in the year 1833  · Lived 53 years  · By his will he ordered this."

The Johnston Gate was completed in 1889 after a Georgian Revival design by McKim, Mead, and White, it opens onto Peabody Street (often mistaken for Massachusetts Avenue, from which Peabody Street diverges nearby) just north of Harvard Square. Costing some $10,000, it was the gift of Samuel Johnston (Harvard College class of 1855). Each Harvard Commencement Day for several hundred years, the sheriffs of Middlesex and Suffolk Counties have arrived at Harvard Yard on horseback, preparatory to the Middlesex Sheriff's ritual calling of the celebrants to order. It has become traditional for them to enter via the Johnston Gate.[2][3]

Tablets flanking the gate's exterior

Class of 1874 Gate

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Class of 1870 Gate

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The 1870 Gate (2010)

Class of 1886 Gate

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North

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Class of 1881 Gate

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1881 gate

The inscription on the Class of 1881 Gate invites the reader to "come within its gates, in order that in whole-hearted service to the truth, they may enter into life and so be free".[4] It has been locked for many years.[5][6]

Class of 1876 (Holworthy) Gate

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The Class of 1876 Gate is also known as Holworthy Gate; Holworthy Hall, a freshman dormitory, is immediately inside it. A plaque at its apex reads, "In Memory of Dear Old Times."[7][8]

  • The Holworthy Gate (2019)
    The Holworthy Gate (2019)
  • Holworthy gate
    Holworthy gate
  • Detail, 2010
    Detail, 2010

Class of 1879 (Meyer) Gate

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Meyer gate
The Ralph Waldo Emerson plaque on the West side of the Meyer gate

Meyer Gate was given by George von Lengerke Meyer[9] in 1901.[10][11] Like the Holworthy Gate, it connects the Yard to the Science Center Plaza.[12] The words on a plaque set in the gate's brickwork are from Ralph Waldo Emerson's journal for 1836:[13]

I went to the College Jubillee on the 8th instant. A noble & well thought of anniversary. The pathos of the occasion was extreme & not much noted by the speakers. Cambridge at any time is full of ghosts; but on that day the anointed eye saw the crowd of spirits that mingled with the procession in the vacant spaces, year by year, as the classes proceeded; and then the far longer train of ghosts that followed the Company, of the men that wore before us the college honors & the laurels of the state – the long winding train reaching back into eternity.

Bradstreet Gate

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The Bradstreet Gate (2010)

Bradstreet Gate is a wrought-iron gate across Quicny Stree and Cambridge Street from Memorial Hall.[14] In 1997 it was dedicated to Anne Bradstreet on the 25th anniversary of female students living in Harvard's freshman dormitories.[15][16][17] A plaque with a quote from one of Bradstreet's poems was added in 2003.[18]

Classes of 1887 and 1888 Gate

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1887 and 1888 Gates (2010)

Fire Station Gate

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East

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Robinson Gate

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Class of 1885 Gate

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Emerson Gate

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Class of 1908 (Eliot) Gate

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Loeb House Gate

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17 Quincy Drive Gate

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Dudley Memorial Gate

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South and southwest

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Class of 1880 (Bacon) Gate

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Class of 1890 (Dexter) Gate

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Class of 1877 (Morgan) Gate

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The 1877 Gate, at the rear of Widener Library (2018)

Class of 1889 Gate

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Porcellian Club (McKean) Gate

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The McKean Gate (2010)

Class of 1857 Gate

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The 1857 Gate (2018)

The 1857 Gate (or Class of 1857 Gate) is a triple-arched gate which Harvard Magazine called "a very touching memorial to the unbroken bonds of friendship that this class had" despite the fact that its members had fought on both sides of the American Civil War.[19] Students on both sides helped fund the gate.[20] It has a Latin inscription from Horace's Odes.[further explanation needed][21][22]

The gate was relocated 40 feet[clarification needed] in 1924,[23] and is now on axis[further explanation needed] with the 1876 Gate.[24]

Class of 1875 Gate

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References

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  1. ^ Blair, p. 14
  2. ^ Sweeney, Sarah (May 26, 2010). "Commencement wonderment". Harvard Gazette. Open access icon
  3. ^ Cromie, William J. (May 31, 2007). "Commencement feasting, customs, color date to medieval Europe". Harvard Gazette. Open access icon
  4. ^ "The gates that frame Harvard Yard". The Harvard Gazette. 2017-08-29. Archived from the original on 2020-01-02. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  5. ^ "Harvard's gates, on the screen". The Harvard Gazette. 2013-08-12. Archived from the original on 2019-12-26. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  6. ^ "Locked Away: A Tour of Harvard Yard's Neglected Gates". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  7. ^ "Enter to grow in wisdom". Harvard Gazette. 2005-12-15. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  8. ^ "Autumn arrives in Harvard Yard". Harvard Gazette. 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  9. ^ "Meyer Gate | News | The Harvard Crimson". Archived from the original on 2022-02-13. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  10. ^ "Enter to grow in wisdom". 15 December 2005. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  11. ^ "Change on the Meyer Gate. | News | The Harvard Crimson". Archived from the original on 2022-02-13. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  12. ^ "The history of Harvard gates". 23 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 December 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  13. ^ "Oblique view of Ralph Waldo Emerson plaque". Harvard Property Information Resource Center. 5 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  14. ^ Shand-Tucci, D.; Cheek, R.; Rudenstine, N.L. (2001). Harvard University: An Architectural Tour. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 255. ISBN 9781568982809. Archived from the original on 2022-07-05. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  15. ^ "The gates that frame Harvard Yard – Harvard Gazette". news.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-01-02. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  16. ^ "Why The Gates of Harvard Yard Exemplify Great Urban Design". Curbed. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  17. ^ "The Alumni - January–February '98 - The Women's Entrance". harvardmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  18. ^ "To Our Readers: |". thecrimson.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  19. ^ J. Michael Welton (18 July 2013). "The Gates of Harvard Yard, by Blair Kamin (review)". Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  20. ^ "Gates of Harvard Yard, by Blair Kamin". 28 April 2016. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  21. ^ Bethell, John T.; Hunt, Richard M.; Shenton, Robert (30 June 2009). Harvard a to Z. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674020894.
  22. ^ Rhinehart, Raymond (March 2000). Princeton University: The Campus Guide. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 9781568982090. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  23. ^ "WORKMEN BEGIN ON NEW ADMINISTRATION BUILDING | News | the Harvard Crimson". Archived from the original on 2020-08-20. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  24. ^ "Enter to grow in wisdom". 15 December 2005. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.

Further reading

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