Botanic Garden [Demolished]
AddressCambridge, MA, United States of America, 02138
Site Number1646
Building Root Number
N/A
PIRC Site Number 1646
PIRC Site Number 1646
Architect (Original)
William Dandridge Peck
Building Acquired
1805
Constructed 1807
Demolished 1949
Constructed 1807
Demolished 1949
StatusInactive
Site Name HistoryThe site is named after its function.Historical NotesIn 1805 Harvard College and the General Court of Massachusetts raised funds for the purchase of land and the establishment of a botanical garden for the college. In the same year William Dandridge Peck, a Boston-born naturalist, was selected to be the first Massachusetts Professor of Natural History and tasked with the collection plants and creating the garden.In 1807, after a collecting trip to Europe, Peck returned to Cambridge and, with the assistance of William Carter, established the garden which was located on seven acres of land north of the main college yard on what is today the corner of Garden and Linnaean Streets. Peck died in 1822 and the garden fell into a period of disuse until Dr. Asa Gray was appointed the Professor of Natural History in 1842. In 1923 S.F. Hamblin was made director and in 1926 the garden contained over 10,000 species.
Eventually, botany and horticultural research at Harvard moved to other campus locations and the Arnold Arboretum. A botanical garden was maintained in this location until World War II but the garden eventually fell into disrepair. In 1947 the City of Cambridge attempted to take the parcel of land by eminent domain which prompted Harvard to construct the Botanic Gardens housing complex on the site in 1949.
Additional Information
Harvard University Archives. Papers of William Dandridge Peck, 1777-1827 (inclusive). Harvard University Archives call number HUG 1677.
Harvard University. Botanic Garden. Records of Harvard Botanic Garden, 1864-1945 (inclusive). (1864). Botany Gray Herbarium.
Harvard University. Botanic Garden. Records of the Botanic Garden, 1879-1907 (inclusive). (1879). Harvard University Archives call number UAV 230.5 and UAV 230.407.
Harvard University. Botanic Garden. General Information by and about the Botanic Garden. Harvard University Archives HUB 3230
Hamblin, Stephen F., and Harvard University. Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden of Harvard University. S. L.: S. F. Hamblin, 1925. Print. HOLLIS number 000002493.
Harvard University. Board of Visitors of the Massachusetts Professorship of Natural History. Petition regarding Botanic Garden Property to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, [ca. 1947]. (1947). Print. HOLLIS number 001701202.
“Cambridge May Seize Botanical Garden Site.” The Harvard Crimson, 20 Apr. 1948, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1948/4/20/cambridge-may-seize-botanical-garden-site/.
“Garden Site To Harvest New Homes.” The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Apr. 1948, p. 2.
“Gardens to Be Site of Harvard Housing.” New York Times, 1949, p. 44.
“Harvard to Build Housing Units at Botanic Gardens.” Cambridge Chronicle, 29 Apr. 1948, p. 1.
“University Will Build New Housing Development at Botanical Gardens.” The Harvard Crimson, 10 Feb. 1949, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1949/2/10/university-will-build-new-housing-development/.
